


Under seven keys

by LisaxParker



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alpha Cristiano, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, M/M, Omega James, Past Mpreg, Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2018-11-06 17:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 57,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11041083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LisaxParker/pseuds/LisaxParker
Summary: Six years later, Cristiano receives a call from the omega who changed his life forever.





	1. Every saint has a past

**Author's Note:**

> In which Omega James is who gave birth to Junior.

“Dad, who’s my mom?” Junior asks him and the phrase comes out of his lips naively, while he is petting his puppy on the couch or when he lies down on the floor to play with all his cars. He doesn’t look at him, but Cristiano knows he is waiting for an answer, even though his little head covered with dark curls does not rise, and when he lets out a tired, short sigh from his lips. Cristiano tells him his name and then he always looks him in the eye and it’s there, the sweet confrontation, his brown-almost-hazel eyes against Cristiano Ronaldo Junior’s brown eyes, that were always deeper, thicker. Then he always responds with the same sentence, which from saying it seems to have already been spent: “It doesn’t matter who is your mom, your mom is travelling. The only important thing is that Dad cares for you and loves you”. And Cristianinho lowers his gaze and runs his fingers and his chubby hands over the colored fur of his dog or takes his cars and pretends he is on a road. “Do I have another dad, then?” sometimes Junior insists. “Because Paula does” Cristiano never responds something else, he watches him only few seconds, enough to remember everything.

He knew it was a question he would inevitably have to answer, because Cris Junior realized how things were for the other preschool children. And he had invented that excuse in the hope that his son would believe him. When Junior was littler, everything was easier, because he believed anything that came out of his lips, but over time, Cristiano wondered how long it would last this trip of the person who gave birth to Junior. He was going to tell him, surely, he was going to. When his son is a little older, maybe at ten or at eleven or at an age when he was able to understand him and not reproach him, not criticize him at all. Cristiano knew that deep down he was going to understand and believe that what he did was right.

Cristiano paid a lot of money to avoid it. He paid for each closed mouth that could be a riot in the life he intended to form next to the boy who had suddenly appeared without him wanting it, without him being able to do anything. He paid his friends to bite their tongue when the reporters asked them and he paid him, to forget that he had given birth to a boy for the rest of eternity. Cristiano was not sure if Junior would ever know that he paid for him, so that he would own only to him, but he was sure that everything had been worth it and every day he believed it a little more, when Cristianinho ran around the house or hit a ball and then laughed, with that contagious laughter and Cristiano adored him more than anything, because he was his live portrait.

Except for Dolores, nobody knows the secret. The world gives its proposals and talks about that could be this but also that but Cristiano is never in charge of checking it, to say "yes, this is what happened". Some rumors are running here and there, some closer to reality, others more distant, but Cristiano had made sure that any gossip remained as that, a gossip. A pair of frivolous babblings that never reached his son’s ears. A pair of frivolous babblings that beat him, but Junior, never.

Cristiano remembers it, now more than ever. These years with Cris Junior by his side have served to, little by little, recreate everything in his memory, creating landscapes and scenarios. The year is insubstantial, Cristiano just gets into the head that Junior was born in 2010 and that's all he needs to know, remember, always. So, without calculations, he is sure that he met the omega who gave birth to his son there in 2009. Because it was going to start the World Cup in nine months and he had gone to play a friendly match there in Medellin and had gone with his teammates to have a drink, to celebrate the victory.

Jorge Mendes had recently given him some good news: at any moment it would become official that Real Madrid would pay the highest sum that any other club had given for him, only to have him among their ranks. It was pretty possible that he will be part of his national team for the World Cup and things were going well, life seemed suddenly really kind, truly worth living. And there, sitting closer, was a young boy, all freckles and thin and Cristiano recognized him. He had seen him walking around in the place where they trained for the match. Surely he was a player part of the omega football club there in Medellin, but Cristiano never confirmed that. He was Colombian, probably, although Cristiano had never been interested in knowing that. He did not talk much and seemed shy, giving him sporadic looks. He was not the kind of omega that Cristiano had become used to, he was not cloying. He seemed indifferent. From the way he looked at him sometimes, he did not even seem to know who he was. 

Cristiano's career had begun to soar, so many sudden jumps and so many twists, that he also had difficulty in sizing who he really was, what he was now that he had become a skilled footballer, the kind of footballer who calls the attention of the big clubs. But with it, all came, the Omegas and Betas (and even the Alphas) and parties and silver and everything, everything that makes a footballer, which constitutes an elite footballer. Between so many flirts with no scruples, Cristiano had lost the habit of practicing some ritual of conquest when suddenly someone caught his eye. He was direct, frank and always sincere.

So he said that Omega with brown hair, eyes that were lighter by the lights of the room and blue jeans, with that body that Cristiano scanned with his eyesight, to sleep with him. It was as if the king had chosen the courtier and that poor boy had no choice but to accept him because he was Cristiano Ronaldo and was becoming, faster than he could handle, a world football star.

But he refused. He shook his head and went back to his seat, and Cristiano watched as the rest of his friends were filled him with question, stung him by any hint of what was going on there. One of the teammates of Cristiano said hello to one girl who was sitting next to the boy and Cristiano found his chance, again. The only thing Cristiano heard coming from the Colombian’s lips was his name when he asked. James. And in fact, it was not a name he would remember for the next few days. When James finally gave him a shy smile, Cristiano had no choice but to dust off his forgotten tenderness. He smiled at the boy, approached him and whispered very slowly, so that no one else could hear: quiero besarte.

Cristiano never knew the reason why James slept with him, but he supposed that it was the same reason the rest of the boys and girls did, because an Alpha like him was difficult to find and at least they would have a story to tell one day, even if no one believed them: "I got laid with Cristiano Ronaldo”. And things happened. And Cristiano never saw this James again; he left when he was asleep, in that miserable room of any Medellin motel.

The months passed and it was hours for Real Madrid to play a match against Barcelona when he received a call from Jorge. Cristiano remembers that Jorge sounded pissed, fed up, as if he were a father (the father he had not) who had discovered an evil of his boy. The first thing Jorge asked was, “do you remember James?” And he answered no, because who the fuck was James? “James, the omega you slept with in Colombia, in the friendly match”. Cristiano opened his mouth. “Ah, James!” But immediately his smile faded because how did that boy get his rep number? Why? Jorge tells him that James, desperate and troubled, has told him that he is expecting a child and that the father cannot be anyone else but him. Cristiano laughed nervously. "I saw him naked once" he tries to apologize, but it's no good.

Biting his lip, Cristiano asks Jorge what to do. Jorge sounds hoarse but he answers that he must done the paternity exam when the child is born and if it turns out that James is one of these omegas who are looking for their fifteen minutes of fame, of the demand nobody will save him. Cristiano nods, although nobody sees him, alone in the bathroom of the enclosure in which they are concentrated.

That day, on the field Cristiano looks erratic, without power or joy. His head is elsewhere. Real Madrid that year has no place in the podium but Cristiano, counseled by his mother, whom he has told everything as soon as he has returned home, sends James, through Jorge, the money to carry his pregnancy to term and even pays for a cesarean in a good clinic. Jorge calls him one day while he is training for the World Cup and tells him that James has given birth to a boy. Cristiano feels that his heart is going to leave his chest.

A day later Dolores goes to Medellin and meets the baby, whole corm color, little dark fuzzes on his head. She sends him a photo of the baby and Cristiano receives it in the middle of the comings and goings of his teammates in the dressing room. 

Then it happens.

He never believed in love at first sight, but at that moment it happened.

He fell in love with the boy he saw on the screen of his cell phone.

From that moment, Cristiano had a unique whim: to get rid of the one who gave birth to his son. He offers James ten million dollars to give up the creature forever. No visits, no greetings, nothing. As if he had never been inside you, as if nothing had ever been taken from your belly. Dolores and Jorge repeat exactly the words of Cristiano for James and James, young, alone, confused and eaten by the powerful reality that means to have a son, to keep a son, signs the contract that will take him away forever from the boy whom he has not seen a second since they took him off the belly. He signs the contract that is clear and decisive: he will never see the fruit of his entrails again.

Cristiano had suffered a lot when he was a child, seeing his father drunk after work and at night and he was sure that a family made up of both parents had never been a guarantee of good raising. Then there was his girlfriend, Irina, the obsessive Irina, the always jealous Irina, who went to tell the magazines that she felt bad when Cristiano brought the boy to the house but that after all had become accustomed and that was "Impossible not to love that baby." Irina was good while she was there, but she would never be as much as Dolores and Cristiano ran to his mother one night with the baby in his arms, from his mouth came the words that told him that all this that was happening was serious: I want you to help me educate him, to give him love as you did with me and my siblings. No one will ever know who gave birth to Cristiano Ronaldo Junior. From there, Cristiano almost did not know what it was to give milk at midnight or change diapers because Dolores was always at his side, taking care of everything.

The press began to speculate. Who was the boy’s mom. They said that he had paid for a renting belly, and then all the mockery came over him, questioning Cristiano’s Alpha ability. His press chief was quick to issue a statement that they posted directly on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and that journalists reproduced everywhere: "With great joy and emotion, I affirm that I have recently been the father of a baby boy and I have agreed, since the mother prefers that their identity be kept confidential, that my son is left under my exclusive guardianship. There will be no more information on this subject and I ask everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (And that of the boy), at least in such personal matters as these”.

James never appeared again, nor tried to contact him, nor to know how Junior was, or anything.

When Cristiano looks at him, there is something that spreads throughout his body. And when he hears him laugh or hears him say any word or sees his drawings, or listens carefully as Junior tells you’re the best in the world!, he knows he did the right thing. That no one could ever love him as much as he loved him and that someday, when Cristianinho finds out the truth, there would be nothing to be afraid of, because who does nothing, fears nothing.

And Cristiano tries every day to please him in everything: toys, trips, parties with his fellow preschoolers. The only thing he cannot give him for the moment is to reveal his mother's name, even when every day Junior gets up and asks: Dad, who is my mom? Because that does not matter. Because his father is him, Cristiano Ronaldo, triumphant and flattered and the gods do not share the love.


	2. Six years

Junior woke up long before his granny came to knock on the door of the room, even before Cristiano got up and went to open the curtains and the light went through the whole bedroom and reached his eyes, making him to squint. During the minutes that separated his wakefulness from his father's awakening, Junior watched his features, the shape of his nose, his lips relaxed, his eyelashes motionless and his hair scattered over. He even dared to stretch the little hand and clear his dad's forehead from a stubby hair that stayed there a few times. He smiled so softly, so fleetingly and quietly that he used to go unnoticed, and the only noise that flooded the room was Cristiano's breathing, paused.

Above their heads, on the clear wall, hung a large portrait jealously guarding a picture of both. In a game of shadows, Cristiano ducked his head to look at him.

“Dad” Junior said in a whisper. His breath smelled of toothpaste from the night and mingled with his own scent, with that essence which was all blend of Cristiano's essence and, before his sharp voice, the first thing that made Cristiano aware that his son had woken up was his smell. “Dad, I’m six”

Cristiano smiled, cunning and drowsy and watery eyes. For a moment he did not say anything, determined to let the silence that was in between the two of them be bothered by the sweet, tender look they held for a couple of seconds.

“I’m so old now!” Cristiano stretched out his arms, encircled Junior’s back and carried him, making him a space in his chest that was always sincere to his son. With his face buried in his neck, he held Junior close; A pair of playful kisses on his cheeks and his hair were all the clues Junior needed, which Cristiano needed to understand that a relationship like theirs was nowhere else.

“Such a big boy now!”

“Yep!”

Getting out of bed was always complicated, it was annoying when they were both there because Junior would turn on the TV and see the cartoons and Cristiano, who had been a little childish always, could not resist shrugging his shoulders and hugging his son and keep him warm, laughing about everything, until, when Dolores was in the house, she would knock the door and make them get up because “you will not have training today but Cristianinho has to go to his English classes! And then they stood up, sluggish.

But that day was Junior's birthday. Cristiano grabs his cell phone on the side table and tells Junior to come in, because they are going to get a selfie. Junior always liked taking photos, it catches the attention to him. Barely incorporated, Cristiano takes the image of both smiling and Junior asks “you are going to upload to your Instagram?” Cristiano accompanies the photo with a special message:

 _“Congratulations on your birthday, love of my life. Love you man”_.

They appeared in the house in pajamas and Dolores grabbed Junior’s waist and carried him and Cristiano and Junior laughed, but Junior gave a very big kiss on the cheek to her Granny and murmured again: Granny, I’m six years old! And after a while they would see him, Dolores and Cristiano, running around the big house, the huge house and between the armchairs and the halls and the rooms and then the shout, gaudy and happy, to see Abelhinha sleeping like a slack against a white sofa “Abelhinha, I’m six!”

“Katia is coming soon, I asked her to come before so she could help me to sort the house" Dolores said as they ate breakfast at the large, long table. Cristiano nodded with his fruit juice in his mouth and Junior took a bite of his sandwich.

“At what time will my friends arrive?” Cris Junior asks after swallow.

“At four”.

“Hey, Junior” Cristiano said suddenly, adjusting his chair. “So, what do you want me to give you?”

“Cris!” spoke his mother immediately “How do you say that to the baby? He doesn’t have to know what you’re going to give him, that’s a surprise” her light-colored eyes, accusers, give Cristiano tremendous grace and he scratches his forehead, nodding.

“Ah, you’re right. Forget it, Junior. It’s a secret”

“But…!” Junior tried to say anything, nevertheless Cristiano wiped the corners if his lips with a napkin because there were traces of sweet milk strewn in the middle.

“Are you going to get Georgina, Cris?” asked Dolores.

Cristiano shrugged.

"Yes" he replied after a long, deep drink of the sweet fruit mixture. "Yesterday we were talking and she was also very excited about Junior’s birthday. I'll bet she'll bring you a very nice present, son” he said, and his smile made the whole thing appear uncomfortable, annoying. “But okay, go and take a shower. Granny then will dress you that suit I bought you and will decorate the house with Aunt Katia, right?”.

“And at what time are you coming back?” murmured Junior filling his face with hanging curls.

Cristiano stood. Before he turned and walked out the door into the hall leading to the bathroom, he kissed him on the forehead, but did not answer his question.

-

“Look! You like it? I bought it from Italy. I thought he may like it, boys like little cars, right?”

Cristiano laughed. He grabbed Georgina by the throat and pulled her close, kissing her hair for a few seconds. Georgina allowed herself tranquility, closeness and serenity along with her boyfriend, her alpha who always smelled like stability, like something that was right. When Cristiano released her, she did not want to leave.

“Don’t be nervous” Cristiano sputtered. “Junior adores you. He's going to like anything you give him”

“Don’t be a liar, Cristiano” Georgina answered.

“I’m not lying to you, Junior loves you a lot. Don’t you remember our movie evenings? When we cuddle the three of us in bed and eat potato chips”

That made Georgina smile irreparably.

“I do remember” she chanted.

“I never want to leave this bed” Cristiano continued, memorizing the words that Junior always said when he and Georgina laid him down on his bed after an afternoon of cartoons.

He looked at Georgina from top to bottom, her tight-fitting T-shirt and her denim jacket and tight bluejeans, covering the long legs he had had some nights ago around his waist. Georgina's eyes, also brown, were always sweet to him, and in her smooth, innocent face Cristiano knew that there was a smile that hid all the words that Georgina only dared to tell him in private, when they were bathed only by the light that the night looses in any way and that appears among the drawn curtains.

Georgina answered his eyes with a flirtatious gesture that Cristiano had pretended to have guessed long before. She gestured to her room, but Cristiano raised his hands and shook his head, his usual smile, however. He grabbed her cheeks then and kissed her and Georgina savored his lips so unconsciously that Cristiano, suddenly, thought it was dirty to kiss Junior's mouth again if Georgina had already filled his mouth like that.

“You look beautiful always, but I have to ask. Did you change or...?”

“Do you like how I look?” Georgina gave as answer, taking a disguised turn on herself. “Because if you do not like it, I can wear a shirt and shorts and that's it”.

Cristiano waited a little before replying:

“You look cute even in pajamas” 

“Stop being such a flirtatious, for God’s sake!” Georgina laughed. “You don’t need it”

“Oh, no?” Cristiano sounded defiant and she leaned against his chest.

“No. That face is enough for you”.

Cristiano took it as a compliment.

They let themselves be seen together near a toy and children's clothing stores and Georgina knows that they only feed the eternal rumor that Junior can get a little brother, this time directly from the womb of Georgina. But Cristiano never really talks about that issue, he never gives any concrete answer. Partly because it seems unfair to have a child with Georgina, because that kid, unlike Junior, would have a mother.

Cristiano buys the last turquoise Furby with long ears and the girl who attends the bazaar wraps the box on a blue gift wrap. Cristiano takes advantage of casting a blank paper with the letter he wrote to Junior last night while he slept; Georgina notices the detail and whispers in his ear that he definitely knows how to conquer an omega.

They return to Cristiano's house about half past two in the afternoon. Junior runs to meet them when he hears the car parked and Cristiano opens his arms but Junior is too excited to be able to hug him concretely. He begins to wander around Georgina, who, conciliatory and maternal, tosses a curl with her fingers and then bends down to hug him tightly. Happy Birthday, Cris! She greets and Junior hugs her too, puts his arms around her neck.

Katia and Dolores have almost everything ready. The house is full of colorful balloons, full of streamers and there are tasty things to eat set on a table in the garden, next to the pool. In the pool there are also balloons and Cristiano laughs happy when he notices, finally, the birthday hats that have his mother and his sister. Dolores forces him to wear one himself, and he does not refuse, but he whispers in her ear to go later for the gifts, his and Georgina’s. Dolores is always there to help.

They prepared everything in advance. At quarter past three Cristiano tells Junior to go and get his suit and Granny takes his hand and guides him to his room, while she hears all the chatter of the boy, who little by little has become accustomed to their fancy parties, only now he is older and can realize it. Sitting on the couch, Georgina suddenly grasps Cristiano's hand and Cristiano holds it tightly, holds it to his mouth, kisses it, then drops it, as if he had never held her in the first place.

Then Junior returns, flirtatious and funny, with his hands on his waist, trying to look cool and handsome as well, which makes everyone else laugh. The dogs runs between his legs and Georgina insists on standing and taking a picture, only with Junior and Cristiano, with her family. The blue suit of Junior wrinkles just in the shoulder, where Georgina puts her hand, while Cristiano surrounds her waist. Katia clicks and Georgina mutters immediately that she hasn’t had a photo on her Instagram with her boyfriend and Cris for a long time.

Cristiano sees that Dolores frowns.

-

It is seven o'clock in the afternoon and they are going to sing the happy birthday. Junior is sitting at the head of the table, back in the garden, with all his little friends looking at him, with his Granny and Katia on either side. To the party has also come Jorge and Marcelo. There is a constant murmur that mixes with the running of the pool water and Cristiano crosses the window that gives to the garden carrying in his hands, carefully, a cake of three floors with motifs of some children movie. Light blue and white whole, the eyes of all the children are going to the little boy who is stepping right into the highest circle of the cake. Junior opens his mouth in surprise and Cristiano gently accommodates the cake in front of him. Beside the boy of marzipan there is a lit candle in the shape of 6.

“At the count of three we started to sing!” Dolores says loud and the children who are excited to eat the cake, are beginning to overtake. She makes 1, 2, 3 with his fingers but then Cristiano's cell goes up in pitch until they are all deconcentrated and suddenly all eyes are on him and the apparatus that vibrates there in the pocket of his pants.

“Oh, sorry” Cristiano tries to apologize, smiling, so they realize everything is fine. He looks at the cell phone screen and immediately frowns, because it is an unknown number.

“Who is it, Dad?” Junior asks, looking up.

Cristiano doesn’t stop frowning.

“I’m going to answer. Can you wait for me for a while? I will not be late”.

Cristiano does not wait for someone to response him and he strides quickly to his room. His cell phone keeps ringing and it seems that whoever is ringing has no intention of giving up the call. Once in the tranquility, the solitude and privacy of his room, Cristiano touches the screen and takes the phone to his ear.

At times there is no sound, until he dares to murmur:

“Hello?”

“Cristiano” says the voice on the other side. And Cristiano has a vague memory, a vague feeling of knowing that voice somewhere.

“With whom I speak?” He asks, looking out the window at the backyard where everyone is waiting for him.

There is another moment of inopportune and heartbreaking silence. Cristiano is going to hang up, but then the man clears his throat.

“With James. You remember me, right?”.

Cristiano had only met one significant James throughout his life and was not stupid to not be able to imagine that it was that James who was talking to him now.

He opened his mouth but did not speak. His brow began to sweat a little, and all he could feel at that moment was the boom of his heart strong against his chest, the air suddenly became heavy and hazy, hard to bear. With his free hand he wiped the sweat from his forehead and then decided to clear it all.

“How did you get my number?” Was the first thing he managed to articulate, however. He would give some furtive glances toward the door, fearing that someone would be behind it or around his room, hearing his conversation with the man he imagined was never going to reappear in his life.

“Does it really matter?” James responded and Cristiano cannot to describe the way his voice sounds. “Today it is Junior’s birthday, and I just thought… I thought it was enough and that was the time to look for you and to tell you that…” the boy sounded desperate, uneasy, as if he were talking to him in secret. “Today it’s Junior’s birthday, he is already six…” James continued speaking, and Cristiano believed that those were the only words he could say.

Because of that he laughed.

“Did you hear about that from internet?” He asked mockingly.

Then it came the silence again until James’s voice reappeared, broken and almost in whispers.

“I want to see him” James spat. “Please, let me see him. I swear I’m sorry, everything that happened before is so wrong and I was so young and was so scared, I swear I regret everything! I regret everything, I want my baby back, please! I'm going to give you back all the money you gave me, I swear! But please, let me see him. Let me wish him a happy birthday, I’m begging you!”

“You signed a contract” Cristiano reminded him, blazing. “You sold him. You sold your own kid”.

“No, I didn’t!” James shouted and Cristiano had to move his cell phone from his ear. “I did not do that! I promise I'm sorry, I need to see him. It's been six years, I need to see his face and touch him and hold him in my arms because I never did, I'm going to give you everything back, but today is his birthday and I have never wish him anything, and I just need my baby back… You don’t know how all these years have been, I can’t keep living with all this guilt, I just want my baby back” James repeated, and Cristiano was sure that he was crying.

“Do you want to see him?” Cristiano finally said, when all the rashes he felt for his entire body calmed down slowly. “Do you really want to wish him a happy birthday?” It came then his mocking laugh. That laugh that made James's breath cut on the other line. “If you want to see him again, if you want to wish him a happy birthday, if you want to hold him in your arms again, you're going to have to pay double what I paid you for each visit. Done deal?”

For a few seconds Cristiano heard nothing else.

“I'm going to talk! I'll say it all! I don’t give a shit about the contract, your life, your agent, everything! He's my son. I gave birth to him. I will tell everything!”

“Do it!” Cristiano shouted too. “Do it and I swear to you for the life of my son that I make you rot in jail!"

Cristiano did not give a word else to James and cut off the phone. He threw it on the bed and then covered his head with his hands, surrounded by a crude silence that engulfed all his thoughts, all the things he couldn’t even clarify to himself. The cell phone rang again, but this time Cristiano did nothing and when he sat down, he glanced around the room, as if something had changed in some way. He opened the door then and walked back to the backyard but everything around him was black and when Junior pulled him from the sleeve of his brown shirt, he did not give him a smile or a word or anything.

They sing the happy birthday and Dolores tells Junior to make a wish. Cristiano looks up slowly and when he sees his son with closed eyes and tight lips, fervently prays that this desire will never be to know his mother, because he is not sure of how far it is to become a reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> James wants Junior back and he won't stop until he get him!


	3. What is right

That day, the wind and the gray clouds that ravaged the sky of Madrid already hinted at the possibility of an impending storm. The tall, steep brown trees moved from left to right with a soft swing, and James stared at them for a few seconds as if everything were new, unique, and unexpected. Half disoriented, he dared to move his feet and walk, going into the empty streets that insinuate everything, that make him realize everything. This is Pozuelo de Alarcon and this is the British Council School, he can see it from afar. The high buildings, the walls surrounding them, the desolation of a vast area that is gradually filled with children, laughter, moms and dads.

James admires Junior's school and there is nothing more that crosses his face than a sad smile. They are confusing, the feelings that flood him. Junior is six years old and should be going there with his backpack on his shoulders, running around, behind his classmates, perhaps, chatting with his teachers. He should hurry to the door only to see if this time it is Cristiano who will come to pick him up. James smiles again, pursing his lips. Junior had everything and he is happy, in part, for that. Because a school like that he could never have paid it and knowing that Junior has not missed anything, ever, just makes his heart give repretitive leaps on his chest.

He believes, thinks, then, what could he give to Junior, his son, that Cristiano hasn't already given to him. Instead, it becomes easier for him to tell all that Cristiano has done for Junior and contrast it with what he has done, which is nothing more than to have given birth to him. Sometimes he wonders if he really should see Junior, if he should go to meddle in that life that is like a dream, and say "hey, I am also your dad. You were in my tummy". Would Junior want to see him? Did he really ask Cristiano about him? There are a lot of feelings that James can not cope with, guilt, regret, pain, and love, love now stronger than ever, love that did not arise when he listened to his son's crying. 

James has only told this to Daniela, a friend of years he has kept and who is the only one who is aware of what really happened to the baby that was born in a rainy day there in Medellin. He could not keep quiet, he felt unable to swallow everything for so long without exploding one day, wreaking havoc everywhere. She didn't judge him and instead she stood by him, accompanying him whenever he suddenly had a bad day and remembered everything, while he was watching the Instagram of the father of his son and could see Junior, with his curly hair, with that smile which have some missing teeth.

It was Daniela who told him one day "Do it. Look for your son. You've made the worst mistake of your life, but you can fix it. Don't deprive that child of knowing your love" and suddenly he realized that all this time had been enough and that all he needed was to meet him, greet him, hug him, tell him that he loved him and ask for forgiveness. Would Junior forgive him? How he was going to explain what happened six years ago was something James didn't know and between his rising euphoria he had not had time to digest it, to say "well, this is what I will do." He had suddenly arrived in Spain, packed his bags and left Colombia in search of his baby. And he was not going to leave without his baby with him.

The call to Cristiano had knocked him out a bit, yet his threat had not discouraged him. It could have been a little rushed, could have made Cristiano become paranoid, may not have been the best move but James needed it. He needed to prove, at least, in the right way, in which the two of them agreed that it is time for Junior to know all the truth.

But Cristiano didn't want to and James regrets that the only option left is this, that of staying in hiding. That to watch Junior from afar, without yet the corage to come to him and talk to him about anything. He knows he must slow it down, he has to take it easy, go step by step, but James can't help but wanting to take his son away.

Sometimes, in any case, he doesn't know if he has the right to do it.

James makes a space between the cars that arrive and park near the gutter. In his simple clothes, his black jeans, blue shirt and brown coat, does not attract attention because he happens as a babysitter, someone in charge of going to look for the children of employers. Around him, the well-groomed moms and worried dads, betas here, alphas around, omegas for the most part, James can smell them. He can smell all those people who are so different from him and who, at the same time, are the ones that Junior has surrounded all his life. I wish I could have given him a different life, without so many luxuries, a more real life, James thinks. 

There are many children who run suddenly, who overwhelm the exit and James tries to capture, from afar, the brown head full of curls of Junior. He stands on tiptoe reeling from here to there, but he doesn't take another step forward, full of fear that someone close to Cristiano sees him and recognizes him and then everything, the small thing that has formed arriving here to Madrid, falls to pieces. Among all the people, James is able to see Dolores, who, accompanied by a man he doesn't recognize, goes through the threshold of the gate and disappears for only a few seconds, to return taking the hand of a child, who gives a pair of leaps while saying goodbye to the doorman.

James's breath is gone.

Seeing Junior, after six years, is weird, it's troublesome, he wouldn't know too well how to describe it. It is a whirlwind of emotions that runs through him, from the tip of his hair, through his half-open mouth and his still feet. He would like to run, to go to him, to give him his hand, to take him away from Dolores and yell at her "that boy is mine!" But he's too cloudy, too adrift to even try. It's as if he were a statue, motionless and with almost stagnant breathing, with no possibility of taking a step forward. Dolores loads Cristiano Junior's backpack on her shoulder and looks around, as if she's afraid of something or someone. James knows she fears him.

He watches for the last time the uneven walk of his son, and it seems that among all the murmurs of all the children outside that school, he was able to hear the voice of Junior, which he only knows by videos. And it seems so sweet, so sweet, so sweet. Junior never looks back, and James loses that, by some chance of fate, for God's sake, their eyes meet and there is a connection, a feeling that is born and that tells both that they were cruelly separated before and that their future can't be other than being together.

"Cristiano" escapes from his lips no more, very quietly. And there is someone who passes by his side but doesn't realize that he is there, that he is a dad who is dying just to see his son.

Junior gets into a big, imposing black truck, and James has no chance to make contact with him. He feels useless, empty, his son leaves his side and he, again, lets him go. He, again, doesn't prevent it.

He did wrong so many things, so many, so many, he did everything wrong. But the only thing he's waiting for now is a chance, the little possibility to fix things, that things take the course they always had to take. Junior's at his side, because he's his dad.

James firmly expects that.

-

"Is something wrong, Cris?" Marcelo ventured to ask after Cristiano was quieter than usual in training. There were no jokes that day or games with any of the boys and in the dressing rooms, Cristiano gave off a deep silence, which in the end Marcelo dared to break by placing a hand on his shoulder. "You know you can count on me, always"

Cristiano remained silent for at least a couple of minutes in which Marcelo believed that it was probably best to leave him alone, at peace with himself and with what he didn't want to tell. He grabbed his bag and put the things he had in the locker, turning his back on him. At last he heard Cristiano say his name and turned, seeing him with a frown.

"If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone?"

Marcelo pursed his lips.

"It's a secret and you and I are friends. You know I wouldn't tell anyone else"

Cristiano finally sat on the bench, put a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, then scratched his hair and Marcelo sat next to him, watching him cover his face with both hands.

"It's Junior," he said at last.

"Is something wrong with him? Is he having a hard time at school?"

"No, no." Cristiano shook his head. He took his hands off his face and gave a long sigh. "It's his mom, the omega who gave birth to him wants to see him."

Marcelo's mouth opened in surprise. Cristiano never spoke with him or any team mate about the omega who had given birth to Junior. He tried to say something, but he didn't quite know what. He looked at Cristiano and put a hand on his bare shoulder, squeezing lightly and then releasing.

"Did the omega go to your house? How did the omega contact you?" He thought to ask.

"Damn, I don't know, this omega got my number and called me and asked me to see Cristiano and threatened me to talk if I didn't agree. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do" Cristiano sighed deeply and Marcelo saw himself without knowing what to answer back, not knowing what action to take to be able to help Cristiano. He glanced toward the dressing room door, making sure they were really alone.

"And what did you say? You said no, didn't you?"

"I told him that he had to pay twice what I paid him for every time he would want to see him." Cristiano straightened, his shoulders rigid. "But he is not ready, Marcelo, my son is not ready and neither am I. It has been a long time, he doesn't want Junior, he just wants money"

There Marcelo straightened with him, frowning.

"He? Is a male?"

Cristiano nodded again and again.

"Cris, you never told anyone who is... who's Junior's mom, and it's okay if you don't want to tell me, I understand, but..."

"Only my mother knows, no one else. I don't want this to be made public and he threatened me, but he wouldn't be able, he wouldn't speak"

"He lives here, Cristiano?" Asked Marcelo. "Is he Spanish? Can he come here?"

"He's Colombian, his name is James" said Cristiano, after shaking his head.

"And how did you meet him? Are all the rumors true?"

"I met him in Colombia in a friendly match, he was part of the Omegas club, he played football too, I don't know, he contacted Jorge, he said he was expecting a child, we did the paternity test when Junior was born and I knew he was my son, I offered him money to give him to me and that was it. He accepted a lot of money, but now he said he would give it back to me, just to see Junior".

Marcelo bit his lip.

"Can he come here? Can he come and try to get Junior?" He repeated.

It was as if Cristiano realized that yes, he could.

"He was a poor omega when I met him. If he was smart enough and saved some money, yes, he could come" After that there was a silence and Cristiano looked up, his eyes narrowed. "And he knows what school Junior is going to, where I live, he knows everything"

"You know what, Cris?" Said Marcelo, seconds later. "Maybe it's OK"

"What?" Spat Cristiano, not understanding.

"Maybe the time has come. Maybe it's time for Cristiano to meet the omega who gave birth to him and if he's looking for him, it's for something, right?"

"Yes, for money, for fame, for hanging out for a while on TV"

"Cris, you have to trust that James really wants to see Junior, not for money, not for fame, not for you, but because he's sorry. Because he wants his baby back, because he wants to meet him, see him. You can't be so selfish, Cristiano. Junior deserves to know his... his other dad".

"He doesn't need another dad, Marcelo" Cristiano immediately argued. "My son has me".

"Of course he has you" Marcelo murmured. "But have you thought about what Junior wants? Does Junior want to meet James?"

"He always asks me who his mother is"

"Think about it, Cris. You're his dad, you raised him, nothing's going to change that"

Cristiano got to his feet, but Marcelo didn't let him go. He grabbed his arm and pulled him close. He kissed him on the cheek, which lasted a few more moments, and held him until Cristiano gasped and Marcelo understood that it was enough. They looked into each other's eyes and the last thing Marcelo whispered was:

"Think about Junior and what is best for him"

Cristiano swears he will.

-

"So how was school?" Cristiano asks Junior, sitting next to him to verify that he is really doing his homework. Junior colors a picture of a large print, and doesn't seem to pay much attention so Cristiano has to say his name again.

"Good" he says simply. "The teacher is teaching the three times table, I can tell all the numbers" he followed, proud.

Cristiano smiled. Dolores walked around, nervous because she knew all he wanted to talk to her grandson. And Cristiano knew as well that she was divided, still undecided and he couldn't blame her. He himself felt all the words stuck in his throat and only managed to look at Junior with the pencil in his hand, moving like waves.

"Hey, Cristiano" caught his attention later. Junior whispered a "Hmm?" but that was not enough. "Look at me"

In the eyes of his son, Cristiano couldn't see the look of James that, after the call, was present in his head more than ever. And he didn't know if that was a blessing or a curse.

"Are you happy, son?" He said in a whisper and Junior stared at him in surprise. Dolores also fixed his eyes on him but Cristiano didn't pay attention and remained serious, questioning his child.

"Yes" Junior replied, painting again. Cristiano stretched out his hand to touch his curls and the giggle that Junior let slip was all he needed to decide to take this forward.

"Do you need someone else?"

"Who?

"I do not know, someone."

Junior shrugged.

"I want you to be happy"

"Cris" Dolores then intervened, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing slowly. "Cris, he's very small, he's not ready, not now."

"Ready for what?" Asked Junior.

"I just want you to be happy"

"Cristianinho is happy," Dolores murmured. "Because he has you and he has us, and for now, that's enough. Just do your homework, Junior. I'll talk to your dad"

Dolores took Cristiano to his room, confused and bewildered, under the watchful eye of Junior who wasn't fool. When they were inside the room, Cristiano grabbed his phone and sat down on the bed, jealously searching for the number of James that had been registered. Dolores said something but he didn't seem to hear, absorbed in his thoughts about all that could happen if he dialed that number, if he would allow a stranger into his life and that of his son.

She is standing beside him, as always, static there, firm, uncompromising and Cristiano looks up to observe. The eyes of his mother he can always read them and knows that she also knows him as nobody. There is no other advice that he would actually follow, only that of his mother.

"Let's wait" says Dolores. "Let's wait. He might talk, but you and I know that if he wants to talk he will have to say all the truth, he will have to say that he accepted money in exchange for his own son. We don't know what he will do. He could try to find Junior. We are going to be careful. But we have to wait. Are you really going to do it? Are you going to let that boy come into this house? You're going to tell your son who his other dad is, who gave birth to him?"

"I told Marcelo, he advised me to tell him, to ask Junior, to do what is best for him" answered Cristiano.

"I also think about what's best for Cristiano, we don't know that omega, we don't know what kind of person he is, what he wants, does he just want to see him, does he want his custody? We need to be careful".

Cristiano nodded, suffocated.

"He'll call you back and then we'll figure out what to do. If talking to him, coming up with the situation, tell him how things are. I know Cristianhino deserves to know who his other dad is, but he also deserves stability, a quiet life, a good life. And we don't know if that omega can deliver all that"

"He said he just wanted his baby back"

"Well, he should have thought it better before he sold him"

That phrase gave Cristiano a pang in the chest.

"I know I'm not innocent," he said, standing up. Dolores put a hand on his face and caressed him sincerely.

"You're the best father Cristiano could have. You're his everything, don't destroy that."

In the end, Dolores wrapped him in the warm embrace that Cristiano desperately needed. They were for a couple of minutes in mutism and swaying from side to side, eyes closed. When they separated, Dolores removed from Cristiano's eyes an elusive tear that refused to fall.

"I know you'll do the right thing" Dolores said finally.

Then they had to cut their conversation, because Junior was knocking at the door and saying out loud that he had finished painting all the alphabet. Cristiano smiled a little. He was going to do the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Cris is really confused about what is the right thing to do. Should he tell Junior the truth? Should he try to contact James? And James is now in Spain! He will try to do anything just to see and talk to Junior! And there is the question: when will James and Cristiano finally meet again?


	4. Broken promise

Georgina looked up at Cristiano. Lying on his chest, they had kept a silence that, after all, made her uncomfortable. Cristiano was staring at the ceiling, with no intention of caressing her hair, or running her shoulders with his hands or kissing her cheeks or lips; In private he did not say a word and Georgina felt it without desire, without passion, as if this was a duty. There was not a hint of love in his eyes.

"You've been very quiet" Georgina said, intending to start a conversation. She covered her bust with the white sheet and turned to look at Cristiano, waiting for an answer.

"It's nothing" he replied, without being able to come up with a credible excuse.

Georgina didn't seem satisfied with that answer, but she didn't give up. She made herself a space closer through a path of wet kisses that she left from Cristiano's hairless chest, through his collarbones and shoulders, running down his neck to his mouth. It was she who started the kiss between their lips but Cristiano didn't answer. And though she insisted, caressing his waist, her fingers through his stomach, Cristiano had no reaction. The kiss he gave her felt loose, empty, strange. Georgina stood looking at him with strangled eyes.

"Cris" she whispered.

"Sorry" Cristiano excused himself, pausing to get up. Georgina rolled over to the right side of the bed, right on the side that Cristiano left quickly. From there she saw him put on his boxer and catch a towel from the closet, never looking at her. Georgina thought if there was something wrong with her, if she had done something that bothered him. Nevertheless, she couldn't ask, because Cristiano walked down the hallway to the bathroom, entered the cold room and closed the door.

After a while Georgina heard the shower and the water falling.

During the time that Cristiano took in the bathroom, Georgina put on her underwear but didn't get out of bed, too confused and still stunned by all the situation and the attitudes of Cristiano, which she couldn't find a real reason, nor a Identifiable origin. It was since Junior's birthday that Cristiano had begun to behave strangely, to walk more quietly, to neglect her, to be surly, to avoid her. Suddenly the kisses were cold and the hugs nonsense, and Georgina no longer felt that beautiful connection, that heartbeat of her boyfriend that she could hear when they gave a tight hug.

She had wanted to ask what was going on. What happened on that birthday, who called him that afternoon to make him change so abruptly, to baffle him and drive him away from everyone. Georgina wasn't sure what to think. The press hadn't been rumored, and she was running out of ideas. Even coming and confronting Cristiano, asking him, was something that slipped out of her hands and she simply dind't dare to do. She didn't know very well how to take this unforeseen change. She didn't know what to say. Her relationship with Cristiano was going so well and suddenly things were changing so agitatedly. She had never seen it coming. 

Georgina listened for a moment to the bathroom knob move and sat on the bed, her black lace bra and dark hair ruffled, her face pink. Cristiano didn't observe her, however, and began to take his clothes that had been scattered all over the floor. He settled himself on one side and put on the bluejeans, then the T-shirt and the shoes and it was there, in the moment he made an attempt to get up and get away from that room, when Georgina dared to ask.

"Why can't you even look at me?"

Her voice sounded hoarser and louder than she thought.

Cristiano turned very slowly. The two were then looking at each other for short seconds.

"I'm sorry, Gio, I'm sorry, okay? I know I'm doing this wrong, but it's something I need..."

"What do you need?" She asked anxiously. "Cris, what's going on? We're a couple, you can tell me anything, and I'll understand you, I promise I'll understand."

"It's not that easy"

"But what's going on?" Georgina insisted. "You changed suddenly, we were so well, so happy"

Cristiano let out an audible sigh. He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them, he seemed to change his mind. A soft, very small smile appeared on his face and then he shook his head, as if he wanted to erase everything he had said before.

"It's nothing, Gio, I swear, I'm just tired, I want to go to my house with my son, that's all" he repeated.

Georgina looked at him as he reflected in the mirror, arranging a pair of wet hairs that had been disordered. The imposing figure of Cristiano made her bow her head, but still frowning. She could see his smile appearing in her full-length mirror, though she couldn't smile back. Cristiano walked to the bed to say goodbye and instead of kissing her lips, he left one on her forehead, grabbed his things and his bag then and crossed the threshold, disappearing from her sight.

The next thing Georgina heard was the clatter of the door closing, and then the silence.

The kiss Cristiano gave to her had never felt so cold.

-

"Hello?" whispered James, very slowly on the phone.

For a few moments he barely heard Cristiano's breathing on the other side of the line. He had to lick his lips. He wanted to tell him so many things, he didn't quite know where to start. Although the call hadn't been cut, Cristiano's silence only made his stomach ache. His voice faltered when he asked another question:

"Are you there?"

James doesn't know what to expect, but finally Cristiano responds a snore

"Yes"

And then he sighs, without much sound.

"Thanks for answering me" he begins. He looks out the front of the cheap hotel room he has gotten in Madrid, where there is a TV off. Further away there is a ball and is the only thing James feels as his own, as close to the land where he was born, but also close to Junior and his son's father. "I called you so many times but you kept hanging up the phone. Thank you for answering me this time"

Cristiano says nothing and James thinks it's the opportunity to vent, to make the things right.

"I... Cristiano, I rushed in. When I called you I said things I shouldn't have said. I'm sorry, okay? I'm not going to... I'm not going to talk or say anything, I don't want to muddle your career or expose you or Junior. I just said that because I was desperate, I didn't know what else to say for you to let me see Junior. You know I just want to see my baby" James waited for some reaction, some word that came out of Cristiano's mouth and reached his ears and pierced him or made him feel a giant relief, but there was nothing, nothing, nothing. James was willing to accept anything but he just needed to know that he was listening. "All the money you gave me... I'm going to give it back to you. Really. I don't want it. I just want my son." He took a breath of air, the cold coming out from his lips. "I was very confused when I agreed to give you Junior. I was young, I was going to turn 19, Cristiano, I was just an omega who wanted to play football. I didn't know how to raise a baby. And I did everything wrong. Now I just want to have the opportunity to meet him, to hug him, to tell him that I am his father too... I'm not going to mess up this, I swear."

Finally Cristiano cleared his throat and his voice sounded very deep.

"You are in Spain?" He asked and James decided to be honest.

"Yes, in Madrid"

"Are you going to try to find Junior?"

A couple of seconds was all that James needed to think.

"He's my son, Cristiano..."

"Are you going to try to find Junior?" He repeated.

James ran a hand over his forehead.

"I don't want to hide to see my son"

"I still don't decide if you can see him, if you must meet him"

"Please," James' tone of voice wavered between supplication and tenderness. "I know I did everything wrong, but... please, I just need to see him"

Cristiano said nothing.

"And I know that you have given him everything and I will be grateful for that forever but Junior also needs the love of the omega who gave birth to him. He needs a mother. And that mother is me"

"Let me think about it," Cristiano finally snapped, and the smile on James's face slowly bloomed just for hearing him say that. He nodded many times, right there in the bed of his small room, a few fugitive tears slid down his freckled cheeks, staining the sheets. "Let me think about it, I don't want Junior to get hurt. I don't want you to build him false hopes and then leave him, again"

"Never. I want to be with him because I made the biggest mistake of my life the day I let your mom take him away. I just want to fix it somehow"

"Promise me you won't hurt Junior"

"I promise, I promise, I promise." James bites his lip. "Promise me that you're really going to call me back and you'll give me an answer," he tells Cristiano afterwards and then the silence came.

Because Cristiano never does.

-

While they are eating dinner, Junior tells what happened to him at school today. He says all about math and gym class and how he was able to make two goals against the team of the other grade. Cristiano looks at him with a smile as he takes his noodles to his mouth. Dolores grimaces with her lips just to prove to Junior that she is listening to him and comments each one of his sentences with a "seriously?" "I can't believe it!" "Wow!". Junior nods very proudly and sucks a thin noodle, staining his lips with bolognese sauce, then instantly grabs a napkin and scuffles furiously through his mouth.

Cristiano moves his shoulders before opening his mouth.

"Hey, Cris, what about Paula?"

Junior lifts his head and the look Dolores and Cristiano cross is an intimate and graceful.

"Paula?"

"Yes, that girl, your little friend"

"Ah, she can't play football" Junior evaded the question by relating it to the topic they were talking about a moment ago. "She cannot even run behind the ball"

"Girls can also play football, Cris" Dolores argued, drinking from his glass "When I was a young I liked to go and watch the boys play in the neighborhood fields and sometimes I even played with them"

"But Paula is an omega. Omegas can't play football," Junior said. The smile that Cristiano had on his face gradually faded to a discolored grimace. And suddenly everything comes back to his head like a hurricane. Colombia, Medellin, the national team, the city's omegas football club. The way James played with the ball, and then ran back and forth, he had seen him while he was shooting free shoots against the goalkeeper. Omegas play football and Cristiano knows that Junior's destiny cannot be other than spend his days in a stadium full of fans, because talent is in his genes.

"Omegas can play football, Cristiano, I once met a very good one" suddenly releases and Junior opens his eyes very big. Dolores looks at him in silence, but Cristiano knows that in her gaze is always the warning, the sincere annoyance "don't talk too much" "Don't say things that you can later regret"

"For real?" Asks Junior. "An omega playing football? In a team like Real Madrid?"

"Not in such a good team" Cristiano measures his words. "But as long as you can play, any team is good, isn't it?"

"Where did you meet him?" Junior seems strangely excited to know the details. "Where did you meet an omega who plays football? I've never seen one"

"In a country far away," Cristiano replies half mockingly.

"And when did you meet him? What was his name?"

"Enough questions, Cris" Dolores intervenes, raising her hands. "Weren't we talking about Paula?"

Cristiano stares at his mother only for a few moments, while Junior removes himself in the chair.

"Paula is a beautiful girl" Dolores continues. "Very pretty, with those green eyes and that brown hair," she says coquettishly. "I know, you like her"

"I don't like her!" Junior jumps right away.

"There's nothing wrong with admitting it, Cris, but you're too young to have a girlfriend"

"Granny!" Claims Junior and Cristiano laughs at the contradiction of his son. He feels that in all that play between Dolores and Junior he has no right to meddle and, on the other hand, the memory of the omega playing football in Medellin doesn't leave him alone, he doesn't find peace in the immortal memory of the eyes of James, and the sweet, sweet, sweet James' scent.

However, remembering James is not enough to help him decide, to say "I'm going to dare. This is the best thing for Junior, the best thing for Junior is to meet his mom." He had promised James to return the call with the definitive answer, but the five days that had passed since he had last talked to James were not enough and suddenly he was in limbo, confused, his head tangled, his thoughts mixed.

James hadn't promised to stop looking for Junior and Cristiano had promised to return the call and he had not, so there was always the incessant question of which of the two would give up first, which of the two wouldn't stand and give the first step, unleashing a hurricane. Cristiano knew that just as he hadn't talked to James, James could go and show up at Junior's school or find out the day of one of his matchs and go into it, break the deal as he had broken his word. He was sure that was a possible scenario, but he wasn't sure how he would react at the moment in which James suddenly appeared in front of him and Junior was by his side and then his eyes met.

And there could be a connection, Cristiano didn't know. He didn't know how Junior would act in front of his other dad, even without knowing that he really was. Could he recognize him? Was there anything in his scent, in his gaze? Cristiano sighs deeply. James's scent, despite the years, had kept in his memory. He could have forgotten his eyes or his face or his freckles, but his smell, never. That scent that came off his entire body during that night.

The noise of a message received on his cell phone took him out of his deep thoughts. He glanced at his mother and his son, but they seemed too foreign, too involved in their conversation to notice that the phone had rung. Cristiano touched the screen and recognized the number. It was a message from James:

"You didn't keep your promise"

There's nothing else.

Cristiano knows what that means.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay in the next chapter there will be a surprise, because, what will James do? 
> 
> And! Cristiano is suddenly remembering that night he spent with James, it's because of that that he cannot be the same with Georgina. 
> 
> Thank you so much for all your visits, kudos and comments!!


	5. A familiar scent

Cristiano hadn't dared to return a single call to James, he hadn't dared to think what could result from that decisive message that he had sent him, not even to try to find out something about him on the internet: if he was still a footballer, if he was known there in Colombia, if suddenly his team of omegas in Medellín had managed to become a club of the first division. He just hadn't dared and found himself immersed in all his thoughts during the night, with the cell phone in his hand wanting to write his name, while Junior slept beside him, frightened that the child would wake up and ask him what he was doing there, with his phone on.

And his head was still a mess. From James to Junior, and then Georgina; He didn't want to hurt her in any way, he didn't want to make her feel the way he knew she had felt those days ago when he left her alone in her room. But, at the same time, Cristiano felt that he had no right to make her carry such a great secret. Georgina didn't have to take a responsibility that didn't belong to her. And it was complicated, it was difficult, Cristiano didn't know if at some point he was going to tell her, if he was going to make her be part of this.

Then the imminent appearance of James. Cristiano was in something like a void, was falling in something black. He wasn't sure of an exact day or hour, he just knew, believed, felt, that James would become himself visible at any moment and he had only to be attentive, watch their spaces, protect Junior. From the moment he hadn't returned the call, Cristiano knew that James would appear but he wasn't sure what he would try to tell Junior, if he would tell him the truth, if he wanted to play a revenge.

On the field, Cristiano runs behind the ball, scores and gives the goal to his son, sitting in the stands next to Dolores. The fans scream right there and Cristiano is like dazed, too strangely dazzled to be aware of what happens on the field, how his team mates run to him to embrace him. It seemed as if, even from down below, he could hear Junior's voice, or notice his gestures, and that all of that suddenly grasped a meaning.

The rest of what is left of the match is passed to Cristiano as a dream and the victory they have over Atletico Madrid 2-1 is reminded by his son, when Junior is in the dressing rooms, chatting with the mates, taking photos, giving hi five to all of them. Cristiano strokes his hair and then goes to the showers and Junior waits patiently sitting in the side table. Little by little, all the boys are leaving, taking their things and going to the most discreet exit that Santiago Bernabeu provides for the stars. Cristiano talks to Dolores in a corner before leaving and loses sight of Junior for some moments, short moments that he doesn't think they can affect him.

Junior walks slowly to the window that leads to the outside, to the little crowded street, which is adorned with a couple of trees and buildings of old facade. His brown eyes go to the sky and then, curiously, they go over the pairs of cars or the few people that travel to the south; there is no jolt until he suddenly arches his eyebrows and attaches his little hands to the glass, approaching unconsciously, wanting to see something more.

There is a boy, a young boy doing tricks with a ball close to the gutter, and at his feet there is a blue cloth on which lie some coins and a pair of notes. There is grace in each of his movements and Junior admires, with his mouth half open, the way the ball appears from here and then there and reaches the boy's feet and go to his back and his chest. It is not, however, what most catches his eye. What attracts him inevitably is the shirt that the young man has on top: a Real Madrid jersey, with the number seven, which bears the name of his father: Ronaldo.

Delighted, Junior doesn't warn him or ask permission from his dad or his grandmother and instead, pushes the glass door and crosses the threshold and the wind hits his face and the sun hits directly into his dark eyes. Curious but still shy, stick a couple of strides to reach the place where this boy with Cristiano's shirt 7 doesn't stop juggling with the ball. He contemplates him for a couple of seconds, while the boy doesn't stop even one of his movements. Junior believes he has not yet realized that he is standing there, looking at him.

It took several moments for the boy in the jersey to stop his game with the ball and place it near the blue cloth where there was some money. Junior looked at him in rapture. He advanced a couple of steps and then the boy lowered his eyes and Junior raised his head, and there was something strange, something atypical, unusual, Junior gave him a smile that the stranger imitated immediately.

"Hi" the boy murmured and Junior flushed. There was something about his smell that he loved, that made him feel that he had known him forever.

"Hello" he replied. "You are a footballer?" Had to ask.

The boy smiled.

"Something like that"

"My dad is a footballer too" Junior added.

"Oh, yes? And what is your father's name?"

Junior swelled his chest.

"Cristiano Ronaldo. He plays for Real Madrid"

"Wow! Cristiano Ronaldo is your dad? I cannot believe it! How lucky you are!"

"Yes!" Junior chuckled. "I bet you could play for Real Madrid too!"

"Oops, I don't think so. They do not allow omegas at Real Madrid" the stranger pouted and Junior imitated him.

"Oh!"

For some moments there was no conversation, no chatter, only a visual contact between the two that was deep, intimate and silent. Junior had such a big smile on his face, thinking about how he could help the boy who played football so well.

"Hey, maybe my dad could help you to play for Real Madrid!"

The stranger wiped the smile from his face very softly.

"What is your name?" Asked Junior.

"Cristiano!"

The voice of Cristiano Ronaldo surprised Junior, who, aware that he had left unannounced, already saw a scolding coming. However, nothing happened. The wind from Madrid whistled around and that was the only thing Junior could hear, standing in the distance between his dad and the stranger in the shirt with the number 7 behind. He had to turn to look at Cristiano but his dad's eyes were undecipherable, and his stand so static, even as he took his hand and pulled him forward, Cristiano didn't move.

Junior frowned.

"Dad, he can play with the ball like you and Marcelo, can you make him play at Real Madrid with you? Look! He is wearing your jersey!"

Cristiano didn't answer. He just looked down and then at the blue cloth that kept some cash without jealousy.

"Dad?" Asked Junior, confused by the mutism of the situation.

That was when Cristiano reacted.

"It's time to go. Grandma's waiting for us inside." Cristiano took Junior's hand and threw him toward him, straight for the Santiago Bernabeu again. Junior looked back as he could, reaching out to say goodbye to the boy.

"You didn't tell me your name!"

The stranger licked his lips.

"My name is James!" He said aloud and Cristiano froze.

"I'm Junior! Cristiano Ronaldo Junior!"

James smiled and Junior moved the little hand to say goodbye. The cold air that hit them that afternoon was all James needed to feel his eyes burn with tears he didn't dare to shed.

"Dad, say goodbye to James"

James looked at Cristiano with trembling lips and chin, watched his broad back in his black jacket and feared for what might happen.

"Does James play very well with the ball, Cris?" Cristiano asked his son, stopping his walk. Junior moved his head up and down with much energy. "Yes? Let's help him with some money, then"

Cristiano backed up enough to be face to face with James, with the omega who had given birth to his son. The look that crossed them was crude, overwhelming. James' brown eyes moved back and forth in an attempt to face Cristiano's stern stare, which questioned everything, passed over him, made him remain silent in a way that he didn't believe he could do being so close to his son. Cristiano felt his scent again. The sweet smell of James that night in Colombia was the same catchy smell that was sticking into his nose now.

He took a step forward, James stepped back instinctively. Cristiano squatted down, pulling out a couple of bills he carefully left on the blue cloth.

"Money never hurts."

It was the last thing that came out of his mouth, before turning around and returning to the stadium with his son. James struggled to catch Junior, but Cristiano had given him a signal that was too powerful, too devastating: two five-hundred-euro bills were enough now to take Junior away from him again.

-

James walks into the room with his chest choked and heavy. He is barely able to close the door with a strong push and tries to stand up to the bed but the pain inside is too strong, too powerful to allow him to take concrete and coordinated steps. When he falls to the bed, making a dull thud, there are moments of painful and deep silence after and they are only broken by the heartbreaking relief James releases. It's like thunder, coming and going, James' moan is heard crudely throughout the room until he decides to cover his mouth with his hand and to mourn his sorrow there, in silence, swallowing all sobs. He closes his eyes, just to feel his tears fall down his cheeks and wet his T-shirt with seven on his back and Ronaldo's name; James thinks that shirt burns him.

In his hand stay each one of the hoarse moans that James releases irreparably, looking with half-closed eyes again the TV off, off, always off. His cell phone doesn't make a sound there on the bedside table. Even if he tries to calm himself, to breathe deeply so that his endless weeping gives way, there is something inside his chest or his heart that continues to puncture him without remedy, over and over and over again.

Because he had done it again. Only this time Junior was not a baby and they were not pulling him out of his belly. And today he had seen him, to the face, in person, really. James squeezes his eyes tight. Everything in Junior is perfect, from his frizzy hair to his eyes and his skin color and his scent, which is like Cristiano's but James can sniff a pinch of his own, there, in between, still very buried by the remoteness that they forced them to live.

And he would have wanted to do and say so many things. The whole body was crammed into having to pretend ignorance in front of the child who was his son, in front of the alpha who was the father of his son. He had to pretend they were nothing, he had to endure the tingling in his stomach, the urge to hold him in his arms and hug him for seconds, for minutes, for hours. Like that day out of school, always lying, clandestinely, always pretending, always being the person he is not.

His whining becomes more and more leisurely, calmer and simpler, but James only removes his hand from his mouth when he is sure he won't scream and won't tear the whole room apart. He doesn't cry often. Sometimes he had bad days, when he remembered everything, and felt his eyes heavy, his throat hard, but James understands that the only reason for his long cry is that he has seen Junior in person and talked to him. He has told him his name.

Junior knows, James realizes from moment to moment. Junior knows that his name is James and that he plays football and will recognize his smell anywhere, because the mother's scent to a child is never forgotten. But all the memories in Junior were very blurred, almost erased, almost invisible. James hoped, however, that a spark had been born between them, something, anything.

And he is afraid of becoming greedy. He fears that suddenly it is not enough for him to meet Junior outside the stadium or see him from afar at school, James fears that his own desire to reunite with his son, to live with him, to raise him, would ruin the conversations he has had with Cristiano. He is afraid that this step he took today was the beginning of something steeper and more difficult. He fears that Cristiano will take tougher measures. He fears that one day he can't take it anymore and will destroy everything. He's afraid of a lot of things.

And the main thing he's scared of is Junior's reaction. What happened there outside the Santiago Bernabeu was soft, innocent, sweet, all smiles and he does not know for how long that could be maintained. Would Junior act like this when he and Cristiano finally told him the truth? Would he be able to admit to his six-year-old son that he accepted money in return for turning him over to his father? How could he explain it to him, how could a child understand without feeling rejected and unloved? Should he tell him the truth? Would it be the right thing? Maybe lying was the only option. All these thoughts chastise him in the same way that his actions crucify him.

James knows he was wrong. Daniela told him and he understood it since he felt that burning in the chest when he saw any baby in the street, when he saw any omega carrying his baby, comforting him. He understood that he wanted to do all that with his son. And that he couldn't even try because of that contract he signed with a fire pen.

Was there a chance today? Did he do the right thing by showing him up out of the stadium? He could not help it, because he could not bear it either. He had been trying to put up with it for six years. He didn't feel able to continue doing so.

James had to breathe deeply a couple of times, just to try to keep his heartbeat calm, slow, more approachable. He closed his eyes allowing the last tears that had remained on the edges of his eyes to fall at last. The room was quiet, as quiet and alone as when he arrived. He glanced around the walls, which ended directly in his chest. The shield of Real Madrid straight in his heart. James put his hand on it and squeezed a little, for short moments.

When he opened his eyes, he felt strange. Relieved in a certain way but with the undoubted knowledge that this was just a start. Approaching Junior, getting him to recognize him, telling him his name was nothing more than the beginning. Appearing there at the Bernabeu could be the best decision of his life or the worst. James wasn't sure but he couldn't say anything against the beautiful feeling of looking into his baby's eyes, hearing his voice in person, feeling his smell. Junior smiled at him.

The first time Junior saw him, he smiled at him.

James cannot feel more fortunate, more blissful.

Because the first approach between them is through a smile. Although James is not sure that Junior's smile will hold when he learns the truth, the whole truth.

-

"Why did we have to leave so quickly?" Junior was spinning around the room while Cristiano tried to turn on the television.

He didn't answer. He just lay back on the bed, the remote control in his hands.

"He was an omega! A real omega playing football!"

"You will see many real omegas playing football in your life"

"I don't want to see many omegas playing football, I want to see James." Junior frowned and folded his arms. He watched Cristiano, with no intention of giving up his tantrum.

"We don't even know him, Cristiano, he could have been crazy, or he could have wanted to steal us," Cristiano argued.

Junior stared at him for seconds, saying nothing.

"James is my friend, and you didn't even say goodbye at him, you were very rude"

"No, I wasn't. I gave him money" he reminded him, as if that were courtesy or education. "It was my way of saying goodbye."

"Are you tricking me?" Junior asked, arching his eyebrow a little. "Because James had your jersey on, we could have taken a picture with him!"

"No, Junior, I swear. James saw us and that made him happy and that's all," said Cristiano, putting his arms behind his head. Junior climbed onto the bed, resting his hands on his chest.

"That is all?" He whispered slowly. "We are not going to see him again?"

Cristiano ran a hand through his hair.

"Hey, what if you come here and put your favorite cartoon," he proposed, handing the remote control over to him. Junior received it and held it for a few moments that faded. He quickly snorted frustratedly and dropped it on the bed.

"Why did we leave so quickly?" He repeated. "James is an omega and plays football! He is like the omega you met in that faraway country!"

Cristiano closed his eyes. He had to sit up against the pillows, his legs crossed, his son's haunting, demanding look controlling every of his moves and words.

"James doesn't look anything like the omega I ever met," he replied, and his voice was low, hoarse. Junior puffed, trying to find the right phrases to say.

"He said that I was lucky because you were my dad"

Cristiano looked into Junior's eyes.

"You're not supposed to have talked to that stranger so much. In fact, you shouldn't even have left the stadium without my permission" he replied authoritatively.

"But I've never met an omega who played football," Junior said. "Besides, he was nice to me."

"Well, probably that sympathy was not real"

"We could look for him," Junior said suddenly. "I liked his smell just like I like yours"

"Cristiano, we cannot go looking for a guy we don't even know. We don't know anything about him! You just saw him once! He could want to hurt us, he could want anything!" Cristiano was raising his voice a little. He was staring at Junior in the same way that Junior was looking at him. The room was silent for a few moments, covered by nothing but the discord that faced father and son there on the bed.

"I know James doesn't want to hurt us, I swear!" Shouted Junior, hoping to make his dad change his mind.

"Stop talking about James as if you knew him!"

"I do! We are friends!"

"No, you are not! James appeared once and you're never going to see him ever again!" Cristiano grunted and then everything happened suddenly. The only thing in front was Junior's face, the perpetual smile on his lips fading slowly as he began to wonder what he had shouted at him. Cristiano could see how Junior wrinkled his nose and squinted, covering his face with his hands, trying to get out of bed. His soft, light crying was all what Cristiano heard.

He had to walk around the bed, just to look for him.

"Cris, I'm sorry. Come here, come here"

Junior didn't take his hands off his face, but that didn't stop Cristiano from taking him in his arms and sitting on the edge of the bed with him. It all seemed suddenly dark, cold. He rested his face on her wavy hair, smelled his scent deeply, eyes closed.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry" he kept repeating. Junior's crying didn't stop, and Cristiano sighed, hugging him tighter. "You're right, that wasn't nice" he said, apology after apology.

He was rough, he wasn't delicate, he was sloppy and he knew it. There had been one of the things he feared most: Junior had liked the smell of James, had masked himself with the childish detail of an omega playing football. Cristiano was not a fool. He didn't know how much longer he could isolate Junior from James's sight, when James would give up this quest. He was sure that James was never going to give up, but there were so, so many things in his head.

He was not willing to share Junior's love. James gave up the boy and that was it. He has no right over him, not even a moral one. Junior only has one dad. But, at the same time, Cristiano feared that Junior would become ambitious, wanting to sniff more of the smell of James. He knows that Junior doesn't even realize that James's scent is part of his own smell, that he has known him since he was born, and that he likes it because it is the smell of the one who carried him nine months in the womb.

When Junior stops crying, Cristiano pushes him away a little and looks him in the eye. Seeing Junior is always like looking in the mirror. However, at that moment, Cristiano saw a glimpse of James' eyes on his son's brown eyes. All sensations blended, all thoughts mixed. Junior opened his mouth to whisper a weak "he is my friend" and Cristiano observes him with a little sadness, a little melancholy and a little compassion. He does nothing but hug him again, both quietly inside the room; Cristiano knows that from now on it's only a matter of time. And he's scared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Junior recognizes James for his scent. I always think that in omegaverse smell is very important and this is not the exception. Junior doesn't know yet why he likes James' scent, he doesn't know that he likes it because James is his dad. He just thinks that it's because James is nice and he likes him.
> 
> Cristiano will finally have to decide what to do, because he can't hide Junior forever.
> 
> Thank you for your kudos, comments and visits! <3


	6. Friends

"Are you okay?" Dolores whispered, and Cristiano nodded. Junior was sleeping in his arms, and even when they lowered their voices, there was always the crude possibility that he could hear anything. But Cristiano was too comfortable, he felt everything so soft, tender and sweet, he had no desire to separate himself that night from his son.

"Yes," he replied dryly. There were moments of silence that Cristiano broke with a short laugh. "You should have seen him, he was so happy, talking about James as if he had known him all his life"

Dolores licked her upper lip.

"He said he was his friend"

"You know why that happens, right?"

"Junior himself told me: he liked the scent of James"

"Because he's his..."

Cristiano put a finger to his lips.

"How long will you keep silent?"

"I thought it was you who told me to wait, to do things right"

"Well, we waited enough for what would have to happen. What we feared, it happened. He went and showed himself, appeared outside the stadium. He spoke with Cristianinho, said his name, made him smile. He was sweet, he was nice. And he is a child, Cris, I'm an omega but neither you nor I could ever replace the scent of that omega "

"I thought about telling him", finally, Cristiano let out, running his fingers through Junior's hair. Junior's mouth was half-open, his chest rising and falling with a gentle rhythm. "When James called me, he told me the same thing again: he was going to give me back all the money, that he wouldn't talk to the television or expose myself or Junior"

"And you believe him?"

Cristiano looked at Junior's relaxed face.

"Do you believe him, son?" Dolores asked again. Cristiano swallows when he suddenly realizes that yes, he believes James.

"He hasn't done anything yet to make me doubt him"

"He appeared in the stadium unexpectedly. He could have said everything"

"Well, he didn't"

"But he showed up there, Cristiano, he just did it, without saying anything"

The mutism of the room was broken only by Junior's breathing.

"Cristiano?" Dolores questioned. "Is there something you haven't told me?"

"James didn't appeared suddenly," he said slowly. "A week or so ago, when he called me, he didn't only said the thing about the money and that he would remain silent, he asked me for an answer"

Dolores seemed to be uneasy. She settled into the bed where she was sitting, her eyes on Cristiano, unblinking, every moment. She looked at Junior and then questioned his son's face again. It was as if Cristiano had the words stuck in his throat.

"And what did you say to him? Did you tell him that he could see him? Is that why James went there?"

A shake of the head was enough for Dolores to sigh for the moment.

"So what?"

"I promised to think it," answered Cristiano. "Mom, I promised James I'd think about it. I said, "Let me think about it" I promised I'd call him back to give him an answer but I didn't, so several days later James texted me, he said that I hadn't kept my promise, and partly he was right, I didn't do it, I knew that meant he would do something about it"

"And you just let it happen. You could have extended the issue, I don't know, you could give other excuses"

"You know what, Mom? I thought about it all night." Cristiano looked into Dolores' eyes, the grimace on her face wasn't one of worry or pity or fear, it was like resignation, but at the same time, like clarity, like security, like trust.

Because he had actually thought about it. He had scaled his options and tried to swallow his own feelings, his own fears and illusions in order to imagine what Junior really needed, what Junior wanted. And he wasn't blind, he could tell, Dolores was a perfect grandmother, sweet, loving, maternal and affectionate but she wasn't his mother. His sisters were always supportive, but neither Dolores nor Katia nor Elma smelled like James and Cristiano knew it. And Junior was six years old, in his life he had known nothing more than a dad, a grandmother and aunts and uncles and cousins, never a mom and suddenly the appearance of James had shown to Cristiano his average selfish, half personalistic behavior.

Junior was a little happier when he met James. He smiled and liked his scent and even said they were friends, and he had never said that he was a friend of Georgina or Irina or any of the other Omegas he had dated. In all his innocence, he thought of taking a picture with him, he thought to look for him. He started to cry because he was cruel, because he told him that there wasn't a little friendship between them. Junior was all smiles because there was something about James that made him excited, that made him feel good.

And Dolores and he knew the reason for all that.

"Do you really believe James?" Dolores whispered.

"I thought about it a lot," Cristiano continued, getting up at last. Junior fell to the pillow but in no way woke up, instead he curled up against the sheets. Cristiano stood up very carefully and led his mother out of the room and it wasn't until they crossed the threshold and closed the door, that he finally said it. "I don't want to make a rash decision and ruin everything, so I'm going to talk to him. I'm going to talk to James, we're going to speak, to put the things in order. I'm not going to take Junior," he clarified. "I'm just going to call him and ask him to get together, I'll know what he really wants, I'll set things straight"

"Cris, how do you know you can trust what that omega tells you?" Repeated Dolores. "He had forgotten Junior so far and accepted money in exchange for his own son"

"When I saw him outside the stadium he was juggling the ball to get money" Cristiano smiled softly. "That means something, doesn't it?"

"He could be pretending"

"Mom" Cristiano argued. "Mom, I'm doing what's best for Junior. You couldn't believe how happy he was when he talked to me about James, you couldn't believe how much he liked his scent. And I know that about that, he will never forget. The scent of James. He once smelled it and he will want to do it more and more"

Dolores looked at the door that held the room in which Junior slept. She kept her eyes on it for so long that Cristiano had to call her attention to look at him again. When she did, Cristiano's lips were only a confident grimace, saying "I know what to do, I know it's the right thing to do." She ran a hand over his cheek and then pulled him to her chest, hugging him tightly. Cristiano sank his nose into her neck and sucked in all the smell that only said "mom" and he knew at that moment what Junior must have felt when he saw James for the first time.

"I know, I'm sure, I raised you to make good decisions, so that you could do things right, and if you think this is the right thing to do..."

"I believe it," murmured Cristiano. "And I do it for Junior, because I love him and I'm his dad, and a dad always wants to see his son happy"

Dolores smiled wistfully.

"I always want to see you happy, Cristiano"

A hug was the only answer that either of them needed.

-

James smiled slightly, though he was not sure that smiling was the right action. Everything was like a whirlpool. He felt the same way he had when he was eighteen, and that football star had been staring at him for longer than he'd considered appropriate, like an anxious boy who was meeting his idol in a very intimate, very special way. He couldn't deny that to himself for years. The memories of Cristiano's hands running through his waist remained like a living, latent, and lasting action.

So looking at him now in the eyes seemed complicated, because Cristiano didn't have a grimace on the face that gave him any clue of what was happening or what was going to happen. Cristiano didn't look back at him and James swallowed, glancing around the room. Small, with barely a window, it held only one bed, a nightstand, a television and a closet, James shrugged. There was not even a chair.

He saw Cristiano turn around and finally see him in the eyes. The eye contact they had was short, James was overwhelmed by the things he knew he was right to say.

"Why don't you sit down?" he offered up, pointing to the bed. Cristiano nodded and sat on the edge. "I know it's not..."

"Thank you," he said only.

"Mmhm," he murmured, and for a moment neither of them said anything. James ran a hand around his neck and then decided to sit next to him, hands clenched. "How is Junior?" He asked, with a real interest but at the same time as a way to start the conversation. He didn't know what Cristiano was going to say to him, but he couldn't answer no when he had called him, offering to speak, to deal with the situation. Maybe it was the only chance he would have to do things in the right way, the one in which the two of them agreed.

"He is fine." Cristiano was still stump and James was starting to get exasperated. He ducked his head, kept his eyes wide open.

"He looked so happy," whispered James. "So happy with you and he looked so proud when I said your name. He is a very happy child," he said with a smile. "And that makes me happy too"

"James, listen," Cristiano began. James had to lift his head and the look they crossed was deep, strange. "I don't think you did well going to the stadium, but I'm not going to criticize you, because I was wrong too, I said I'd give you an answer and I didn't, after all I understand your despair"

"I didn't know what else to do," James confessed. "I just wanted... well, you know everything. I told you everything on the phone"

"Junior liked you. He liked your scent"

James opened his mouth a little, but said nothing.

"Do you know why Junior liked your scent?" Cristiano didn't wait for an answer and instead said, in a low voice. "Because you gave birth to him and he has never had a mother"

James swallowed nervously. He put his hands in his knees and frowned, blinking erratically. The scent of Cristiano just above his nose made something hit his temple. In his face it could only be read the uncertainty, but also the bewilderment.

"What does that mean?" He asked, as if he was afraid of having the wrong thoughts. In the same way that Cristiano's words had awakened something, a small hope, a fugitive desire, the past, Cristiano's first phrases, what he said on the phone, his unfulfilled promises acted as a reminder, like a thorn that didn't allow him to believe him completely, that wouldn't let him indulge in that illusion altogether.

"I don't know if it's okay for Junior to know so suddenly that you're his dad. I don't want to be selfish, but I don't want my son to be deluded and that you just decide that this was enough and you leave at any moment. Because if you do, you're going to break his heart"

"No, no, no, I promise you, I don't know what else to do or say for you to believe me." James stared into his face and Cristiano bowed his head; James didn't cry, though his throat was tight.

"I'm trusting you, James, don't disappoint Junior. Don't let us down"

James stayed quiet for a moment.

"You mean I'll be able to see Junior?" he stammered anxiously.

"I mean you can see him"

James smiled, nodding and whispering thank you, thank you, thank you, but Cristiano put his hand on his thigh and James couldn't understand at first.

"But you won't tell him that you are his dad"

He couldn't understand.

"But..." he tried to say, blinking again and again. "But then, how, what are you going to say to him?"

"He's excited because you're an omega and you play football. He says you're his friend," said Cristiano. "I give you permission, to be his friend"

James had to look back at the floor, with no idea what he should say, what he would have to respond to Cristiano's offer. He was grateful, but at the same time, he didn't know if he would be able to be close to Junior and say nothing, keep his mouth shut. He had done it outside the stadium, but then it had only been a few short moments, something that broke quickly, that vanished.

But James was too sore. Too weak to gloat. Too wounded, anxious and expectant to say no or to specifically ponder over it. It seemed like the opportunity he had been waiting to do things the right way, the one where he wouldn't have to hide; James was silent for only seconds. The truth was that as long as Cristiano didn't want it that way, he would have to be hiding forever.

"James" Cristiano called his attention. "You can be his friend"

"And... and when are you going to tell him that I'm his dad?" James asked with an innocence that made Cristiano smile irreparably.

"Let's not set a deadline, when it's time, when I think it's the right thing to do, then I'll tell him the truth, but we have to go step by step. Don't ruin this with your yearning, James"

James cleared his throat after a moment without a word. Everything said by Cristiano swam in his mind, without pause. But his love for Junior was much stronger than all that, and there, in that little room, they both knew it.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Okay, yeah. I can be his friend. I can be his friend for now. Thank you, thank you, thank you"

He could see how Cristiano looked at his freckles scattered over his cheeks, his watery eyes that were struggling with a pair of slippery tears. As he could, he smiled. Like when he was eighteen and Cristiano told him that he wanted to kiss him. The scent of Cristiano was strong, territorial, demanding. And it slipped into his nose.

"Can I trust you, James?" Cristiano questioned, and then James got to his feet, running his hands over his face.

"I'll show you that you can"

The steps he went through to the closet were short. He sniffed under his meager clothes, searching for all he had to prove to Cristiano that everything he said was true. That he was sincere, without evil. The black handbag he carried with his hands always seemed alien, improper, dirty, in a way, corrupt. It wasn't his. That bag made him sick. With stiffened hands he carried him to the bed, under Cristiano's confused look. James opened the bag and blew the air out of his mouth. Cristiano frowned.

"Count the money. Please, do it. All is there. Not a penny less. I don't want it. I never wanted it. And it's yours, not mine. You gave me all this in exchange for Junior. I don't want to have to live with the fact that I sold my own child anymore"

Cristiano didn't count the money, because James's eyes seemed all the proof needed. It was then that he understood. And he knew that, perhaps, James really deserved Junior.

-

"Cristiano!" Called Cristiano out loud, closing the door of the house. James shrugged nervously, uncomfortable, impatient. Cristiano whispered a "go ahead" but James didn't dare to move, taking his hands. "Cristiano, come, look who's here"

James couldn't hear a couple of steps walking into the living room.

"Thank you" James said, looking at Cristiano. "Thank you very much"

"Cristiano!" He spoke again. "Hey, if you don't come here, I'm going to regret this surprise"

It was then that James heard Junior's sharp voice approach more and more, but he didn't know how he would react or what he would do the moment he saw Junior in the face.

"Who?" Junior yelled running toward Cristiano, and when he saw him, he stopped short. James felt his heart make boom boom boom strong on his chest, as if the air were thinner or suddenly his head was about to burst. Because the smile that appeared on Junior's lips and his thin legs moving hurriedly were the things he had dreamed of since the day he returned home without a baby in his arms.

"Hey," he said slowly, his chin trembling. "Hey, Junior"

"James!" When Junior wrapped his arms around his waist and laid his cheek against his belly, James knew that all this was enough. He put his fingers in his hair and looked down: his lips burned to tell him the whole truth. "Dad, how did you find him? James, he said that you and I are not friends but I told him we are!"

James smiled, with a shaking grin.

"Yeah, of course, of course we are friends"

"James is going to visit us for a few days, Cris," Cristiano began, but Junior didn't move away from James. "He is going to teach you how an omega plays, because that's what you wanted, right? See an omega playing football"

"Can he play football with me now, Dad?"

"Ask him"

"Can you play with me now, James?"

James feels unable to deny Junior anything.

"Yeah, of course, let's play"

"The backyard is across the window," added Cristiano. Junior ran for the garden, but James stared at his way. "What are you waiting for? Go, go with him"

"Thank you," whispered James. "Thanks for trusting me"

Cristiano repeated something that had told him in the room:

"Don't let us down"

James swears he won't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Cristiano did what is right. But with some details. He is handling the situation at his whim so it doesn't get out of control. For now, he needs to have James close, as a way to prevent James from saying anything to Junior. But I don't think that Dolores, and especially Georgina, will be happy to have another omega moving around the house. 
> 
> Thank you so much for all your kudos, comments and visits!


	7. Might come someday

There were things James couldn't understand even after all the time that had passed. The reasons, what happened that morning in which he felt no remorse giving Junior to Dolores, and why came again as a fierce wave all the anguish the next day when he left the clinic to home alone. When he opened the door, his mother had run up to him and held him by the shoulders, and sobbed, "Where is the baby, where is the baby?" And James had seen himself unable to tell her the truth. And all his pregnancy had been the same. Those nine months with Junior inside him were sad, lonely, empty. It was just him, eighteen years old, with a small belly, saying nothing, not wanting to know anything, seeing the only chance he had to get out of the misery ruined by the child he was carrying in his belly. The child who had appeared without him wanted it.

That was something that in the course of time James didn't stop questioning. What was the real meaning. If there was love, if he feel anything for the baby. He couldn't lie. One of the strangest things that happened to him was the perpetual memory, like an open wound but at the same time as a deep, sweet, loving warmth that the child inside was Cristiano Ronaldo's son. His and Cristiano Ronaldo's.

James wasn't that kind of omega and even when he noticed that night that Cristiano was in the same bar as him, he tried everything to go unnoticed, so that Cristiano didn't recognize him from training in Medellin. He wanted to be a ghost, even though inside him everything was beating fast and burning only to know that the alpha he admired was sitting in the same place. He ignored each of the fixed stares that Cristiano gave him and avoided all the teammates who were reminding him every time, who advised him and said "an opportunity like this you will never have it again." The consequences of this opportunity were palpable, lasting. And when Cristiano approached, when all those complicit eyes suddenly materialized, James didn't know what to say, didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to say no. Partly because he felt too overwhelmed, dismayed and ashamed. Partly because he didn't want to say no.

And then came everything and in the head of James the images were very clear, they had stood still. The drive to the nearest motel, the confidentiality of employees, a room. James remembers that Cristiano opened the door and let him in first, but he was still frightened, expectant at the same time, a little curious. James knew what it was that Cristiano wanted, he was eighteen, but he wasn't a fool. Alphas want omegas for only one thing and an alpha like Cristiano, James supposed, was just looking at an omega for sex and nothing more. James knew all that and even so, he did. He surrendered without expecting anything in return, because there was no hope of becoming his omega, no dream of marrying him and going to live in Spain and being known by everyone as the omega of Cristiano.

Cristiano had been loving, touching him everywhere, caressing him everywhere, moaning in his ear, hiding in his neck every time he pushed against him. Telling him words in Portuguese that he didn't understand but that seemed wonderful, inexplicable, sweet, like a mantra. Though he only kissed him on the lips once, when it was all over. Savoring his mouth, moving away from him with a damp noise, James didn't want to let him go. It was James' first time in intimacy with an alpha, with someone else, and he felt flaming, red, with more desires.

But when it was all over, he fell into a deep sleep and when he woke the next day, Cristiano was nowhere to be found. James had to squeeze his lips and blink again and again not to start crying, because he wasn't a small child and Cristiano and him were nothing and he wasn't a famous omega and this wasn't Real Madrid, this was the Omegas Football Club of Medellín. And that was clear, when he slept with Cristiano, he was very clear. He didn't expect anything. At least he tried to make himself believe that.

With the passage of the months, James understood that, apparently, he was expecting something more. No illusion but something very real, very tangible, growing in his belly, silent. He slipped away one day after training to a pharmacy and bought a test. When he returned home, he ran to the bathroom, locked himself there and did everything. And everything told him that what was happening was real. He sat for several minutes thinking of nothing in particular, with the test in his hand, without being able to do any other action. It still felt too unreal, too strange to make what was really happening. It was when he heard the knock on the bathroom door of his mother that he stood up and looked around, heart tight.

He was going to have a baby.

At that moment, when James opened the door, he hid the test on his jacket, and smiled at his mother telling her that "everything is fine", he didn't think about the specific things, the reasons. From the moment he locked himself in his room to change his clothes, with a clearer mind, with more focused ideas, there was only one question that flooded him. He wasn't in heat. The night he slept with Cristiano, he wasn't in heat. James covered his face with his hands. He wasn't in heat and yet he became pregnant. That was one of the things James couldn't understand even after so long.

That same day, he looked at himself in the mirror. Only with his boxer on, he looked at himself in the mirror and watched his belly for a long time. He imagined that his belly was already beginning to swell, he imagined that everyone could notice it. But it was still too early for anything. James thought there was still a chance, a chance to make the baby disappear. Because a baby now... he was eighteen years old, he was playing football and becoming a professional footballer, a known footballer was the only option to get his family along. And his belly was going to grow, and he couldn't play anymore not even run behind the ball. Then the baby would become a child, he would need him. And there would be nothing else.

But James realized he wasn't capable. He couldn't do anything against the baby. He knew it the day he was having lunch at home, when he could no longer attend the club. He felt the baby kicking and he made a decision, quick, without much thought, desperate, as the only chance he had. The call to Jorge Mendes brought him both relief and uncertainty, because if Cristiano didn't believe him, if Cristiano didn't help him, then what would become of him and that child.

He didn't tell anyone anything. Even when Pilar insisted, when she questioned everything. Is it one of your friends? Is it someone you met at the club? James never told her the truth. He didn't have the courage to tell her about how he got carried to bed that night by a footballer he was never going to see again. Jorge's response was like a balm and it was the only phrase that James told his mom: "This baby's dad is going to take over" but he never confessed that meant she was never going to meet her grandson.

Of that day, James doesn't remember anything. He doesn't even remember hearing his baby's cry when it was ripped from his belly. Everything seemed cloudy, cold, he felt disoriented, dizzy, and there was no one, no one known by his side, neither his mother nor his stepfather nor anyone else. James hadn't wanted anyone to know what was going to happen. When he awoke from the anesthesia, the nurse told him that he had given birth to a boy and asked if he wanted to see him. James regrets every day of his life to have said no. They didn't allow him to leave immediately and had to spend a night there in the clinic only to see, the next day, the mother of Cristiano, saying the words that would mark his future.

And he says yes.

There is a picture with three photos hanging on the living room wall that makes James sigh deeply. In the first picture is Baby Junior and James is surprised to know now that Newborn Junior was beautiful. With his small hands and lips parted, his eyes closed and his lashes dark but long, long, long. James ran his fingers along the edges of the photograph. Down, there is you Junior of three, four years? James couldn't tell what age exactly. And he hates himself a little for that. In a black suit, looking very handsome. The third photo is from Junior's birthday, his sixth birthday, James realizes that, because that day, he decided that everything had been enough.

"Looking around?"  
   
His voice startled him. He managed to smile at him, nodding without looking yet. The smile of Cristiano seemed sincere or at least that believed when he saw him in the eyes.

"Yes, but I didn't want to be nosy so I just went through the kitchen and the living room because Junior wanted a banana," he replied.

"He always likes to eat something after playing, but I told him that only one fruit was okay, because then we're going to have dinner." Cristiano is touting the ground and James knows it. "I bet Junior will want you to have dinner with us"

"Perhaps, although I know that you are being very kind and making a great effort and by no means I want to look like..."

"And maybe I want you to stay, too"

James stared at Cristiano, not understanding.

"Because my mom is coming for dinner and I think it would be a good time to tell her that you're going to be coming home to play with Junior"

"Sure," he chose to say, shaking all other thoughts from his head. "I hope I don't make a bad impression, does she agree with this?"

"She thinks the same as I. We both want the best for Junior"

Cristiano and James shared a smile; James turned his gaze to the portrait and asked,

"Junior finished showering?"

Cristiano laughed lightly and James had to join because his laughter was contagious and if it was for Junior, James would always want to be close.

"Okay, one of the first things you have to know about Junior is that he takes hours to take a bath. He's probably playing in the tub, pretending he is a submarine." He's all laughing and James can't help it. He wants to know everything, everything, everything about Junior.

"I was like that too," he dares to answer later, still half shy. "We did not have a bath in the house but there was a shower and I had a lot of time under the water." James laughed.

Cristiano showed his teeth in a simple, sweet grimace.

"It seems Junior and you have several things in common"

"When I had Junior in my womb," James whispered, very slowly. "I would go to the shower in the mornings for a long time, but only when I didn't have to go to work. I would think about all the things I was going to do with my baby when he was born. I had a lot of mixed feelings"

"I bet you looked adorable, with those freckles on your cheeks red and your belly bloated"

"I didn't have a very big belly" James was raising his finger as an accusation, but the grimaces on his face didn't disappear. "It was even small, I didn't eat much during those months"

"You're lucky Junior was born healthy"

"Hey, I mean I ate what I needed, what I needed to make Junior healthy"

Cristiano smirked.

"Well, I do believe you, Junior is amazing in every aspect. You gave me a precious, smart boy"

The words were overdone and the two noticed that. Too sweet, too much alpha babble to which James wasn't accustomed. Too much contact and intimacy with Cristiano, something he wasn't expecting to find in his search for Junior. He opened his mouth but was unable to say anything, so he just licked his lips. They both had fallen into a cold, raw silence. Cristiano didn't take his eyes off of him and that made him uncomfortable, embarrassed. It seemed that not even the noise from the pool on the backyard was audible.

"Sorry." Cristiano ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I didn't mean to... I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, none of that"

"No, it's fine, I get it"

There is not much to talk about after that.

"I'm going to take a look at Junior. I'll be right back." Cristiano takes a couple of long steps and leaves him alone, drifting, confused, dismayed. He looks back at Junior's portrait on the wall. Touching the frame seems to be the only real thing he has for now.

-

"And what did you tell me you were working on?" Georgina's food plate was full even though it had been twenty minutes since they had sat down to dinner. James shifted uncomfortably because he knew the question was addressed to him; He had the eyes of Cristiano, Junior and Dolores fixed on his complexed face.

"James plays with the ball in the streets, he's very good at it!" Junior answered for him and James smiled slightly, nodding.

"Yes, I... I arrived in Spain recently and while I find a job, I try to make some money like that"

"Are you a professional footballer?" Georgina asked directly.

James looked at Cristiano.

"I used to play in Colombia on a football team of Omegas, when I was younger," he replied then, taking the fork to his mouth.

"When you were younger, how old are you now?" Georgina rebuked and James chewed slowly, before swallowing. It took an eternity to do that.

"Twenty Five"

"And what are you supposed to be working in? You know, things here in Spain have been difficult. It's complicated for a foreigner to find a good job"

"I don't know, I know how to do several things, I'll think about it"

"Sure, while you can live on the interest that Junior has for you." Georgina let go and Cristiano dropped his arms, staring at her.

"Georgina," he said dryly. Georgina raised her eyebrows and looked at her plate.

"You could babysit, you're good with children. At least you've earned Junior's affection," added Dolores, who had been quiet during the conversation in which Georgina had taken over all of James's questions.

"I could... it may be an option. In truth, all work is good now"

"You know what?" Junior swallowed his food and then opened his mouth. He had a loose tooth and James smiled at it. "I have an idea! James could take care of me while my mom is away!"

When James heard it, his actions were automatic, rigid, like a robot's. He looked at Cristiano with parted lips and then at Dolores but he couldn't see Georgina, who, with that sour grin on her mouth, frowned and seemed to ask for explanations without opening her mouth. Explanations for something he hadn't caused, at least, he hadn't tried to cause.

"Cris, this is not the time to talk about it," Cristiano tried to argue.

"My mom is on a trip but she might come someday" Junior explained. 

"Hey, Cris, how about while your mom is traveling I spend more time here with you and your daddy? We could swim in the pool and play with the dogs and do a lot of stuff. I can cook those sweets that you like" The way Georgina tries to occupy a place that doesn't fit her makes James sick. He pushes the plate forward, his gaze down, almost feeling unable to look at Dolores or Cristiano although he knows that their eyes are fixed on his hair. There is no response from Junior but James doesn't expect one either.

"Cris" Georgina insists. Junior just looks at her sideways, and go back to his food. "Cris, would you like that? Making cookies and swimming in the pool?"

"I do not think it's a good idea to push a child if he doesn't want to talk" James says, because he's sick of it.

"When you have a child you could decide how to raise him"

That was like the drop that overflowed the glass. James couldn't care less what others think of him when he says to Georgina, bitingly,

"Junior isn't your son"

"But I want him as that. Cristiano and him are my two loves"

Enough, enough, enough.

James makes a move to stand up and Cristiano imitates him immediately, wiping his mouth with his napkin.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dolores. It's also a pleasure to meet you, Georgina," James says, but he doesn't expect any response.

"I can give you a ride to your house," adds Cristiano, approaching him.

"For real?"

"Yes, there is no problem"

"Thank you"

"James, don't go so soon. I wanted to show you my room and the gift my dad gave me for my birthday." Junior stood in front of James and James can't help but smile sweetly. He doesn't care that Georgina and Dolores and Cristiano are present, that they are there looking at him, and he squats, only to reach the height of Junior. The look they share is always sweet, always tender, soft and innocent. James is so sure that Junior couldn't look the way he looks at him to any other omega.

"You know I would love to see your room and all your toys but the time was flying"

"Time is never enough" Junior makes a pout.

And James couldn't agree more.

"But I'm coming back, I promise, very soon"

"Tomorrow?"

"I don't know, but soon. When your dad says so, is it okay? Wait for me until then"

Junior smiled.

"I'll wait!"

James allows himself to give Junior a tight kiss on the forehead. Closes his eyes and lets his lips touch his child's warm skin and all the moment seems to be intimate, silent, just the two of them. When he separates, there is nothing but a tiny grimace in the mouths of both. James whispers to Junior very slowly "wait for me, maybe someday I'll come again" and knows that it has a giant meaning.

"Good evening, everyone," James says, picking up his jacket. Cristiano allows him to pass first and then both cross the threshold, the door closes and James feels the right to question Cristiano everything.

-

"That's what you tell Junior when he asks, that I might come someday?"

Cristiano bites his lip when he hears James talking and looks in the rearview mirror. Unexpectedly, there is no car that follows them at that hour. The sky is dark and Cristiano makes the attempt to look out the window at the last of the road, leaving softly to return to the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood where James was staying. The lights of the car ahead of them hit him in the eyes. James' stern, accusing glare also kept him company.

"Would you prefer me to say, well, Junior, you see, your mom is probably in Colombia, but he sold you when you were born, as if you were a thing?" He answered, looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

He heard James let out a frustrated sigh.

"If you say that to him, you should have told him that you bought him, as if he were a thing." James's voice sounded husky, but sincere.

"Do you see the reason why I chose to lie?"

"Don't you sometimes feel that everything is so twisted, so rotten, everything about our relationship with Junior?"

Cristiano remained silent. James pointed to where to turn.

"But he has me" he released afterwards, with a tremendous effort. James's hand moved close to him without anticipation, hesitant, slow, even fearful. Cristiano stopped in a red light. James put the hand on his thigh and then he had to look at him.

"He has us now"

The road to the house that hosted James after that was silent and bouncy. Slow and gentle, they walked the almost deserted streets and exchanged glances from time to time but not more than that. James didn't take his hand away from Cristiano and Cristiano thought of everything and nothing at all. The house of James was accompanied by many more old houses around and Cristiano admired them with stillness. James took off his belt, all he could hear was his soft breath. When he turned to look at him, James had his eyes glued to the window, watching the house without blinking.

"Thank you for bringing me home" he heard him speak later. Cristiano nodded and murmured a "Your welcome" that faded between their mouths fast. "You should go now, are not some reporters following you?"

"It would be a scandal. Cristiano Ronaldo cheating on Georgina Rodríguez with a male omega"

"With a male omega who lives in a hostel and juggles to survive, what a good catch"

"A real good catch. He changed Georgina Rodríguez for the omega who gave birth to his son"

Cristiano doesn't regret to say anything.

"What you said to Junior, is it true?" James whispered. "James will see us some days, did you really mean that?"

"I did," he answers back. And at times neither of them is able to look the other in the eye.

"I do believe you"

Cristiano blinks.

"In the same way that I believe you"

"Tell Junior I'll think of him a lot"

James takes the door handle and opens it but Cristiano cannot take his eyes off him. All he can feel, think, smell, is the sweet scent of James invading his entire car, staying there even when he is gone. Cristiano hears the raw noise that makes the door when it collides and he wants to call James James James but it is as if nothing could come out of his mouth. James walks to the door and looks at him one last time. The blow of their looks is deep, decisive. He enters the house and Cristiano presses the accelerator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "My mom is on a trip but she might come someday". That's the only illusion Junior has.
> 
> Cristiano is starting to behave differently with James. It seems that the fact that he is the one who gave birth to his son moves him more than he thought it will. 
> 
> There is this little riddle: how could James get pregnant if he wasn't in heat? Place your bets!
> 
> And! I see Georgina trying to become Junior's mom but James definitely won't let her.
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments, kudos and visits!


	8. Two happy and one unhappy

Cristiano is watching television but in reality he isn't seeing anything, because his head is a set of unrelated thoughts. There are a lot of things that suddenly appear in front of him and then they leave, as if they had never really come in the first place. Georgina is by his side and Junior has already gone to bed hours ago. James is probably sleeping in his small room. Cristiano finally turns off the television and leans to the side where Georgina is lying down. He cannot help looking at her for a few seconds, in complete silence, without blinking until she stands up and goes to the mirror.

He would be lying to himself if he said that what he feels right now for Georgina is the same thing he felt before James appeared in his life, again. But he wouldn't like to fall into romantic sentimentality and find himself suddenly getting the idea that James's arrival somehow has awakened feelings in him that he didn't have before. In fact, James has appeared in front of him with the same face that he had that night in the bar, only that night Cristiano didn't think that their union would have consequences. And James had returned as a constant reminder of the things he had done and of the meaning they had, now that time had passed.

Cristiano would lie if he said that James hadn't captivated him. It was like an unavoidable attraction, the way he scratched his nose and saw him from beyond, talking to his friends, laughing but at the same time ignoring him, as if he had no idea who he was. Cristiano had seen him in training there in Medellin, running back and forth with the ball in his feet, as a sparring of his team. He was talented as few and could have a great future when some agent discovered him, only if he wasn't an omega. There in the practices he hadn't spoken to him, he had looked at him from afar and commented on him with his team mates, but nothing more.

It all came later when they met at the bar and then Cristiano told himself that he wasn't going to wait any longer. That the pretty face of that omega was worth kissing and then with that attitude, that intention to go unnoticed, to pretend not to know who he was, James ended up drawing his attention. But when they finally drew near, when they greeted and spoke, Cristiano couldn't remain oblivious to James's sweet scent, like a ripe peach. And when they finally slept together, Cristiano knew he could forget James' face and body, but his scent, never.

And well, at the end Cristiano also realized that he really couldn't forget James because Junior was by his side always reminding him.

"James is nice," Georgina said, brushing her hair in front of the mirror. Cristiano didn't seem to hear her so she had to tell him again and just there Cristiano blinked, nodding.

"Yeah, he is." Cristiano is yawning. "Actually, I thought you didn't like him. At dinner you didn't seem too happy to have him there"

Georgina waited a few seconds before leaving her hair comb on the furniture, she turned and smiled at Cristiano.

"He just came out of nowhere, so suddenly, where did you say you knew him?"

"He was juggling outside the stadium, Junior escaped and saw him and you know, he's really interested in Omegas playing football, he was lucky that James was one, it's because of that girl, Paula. They seem interesting to Junior" smiled Cristiano, but Georgina was silent.

"I'm an omega," she replied afterwards.

"Yeah, what about that?"

"Junior has never really liked me, has he?"

Cristiano rolled his eyes.

"Georgina, are we really talking about it?"

"You know what" Georgina got to her feet, walking toward the bed. "Today, I realized that. Today, when we were at dinner, did you see the way Junior looked at James? It seemed like he had known him all his life, it seemed like they were something. Cris, he barely knows him a week ago. Every month that you and I have been together, Junior has never looked at me like this"

"You just have to give him time," Cristiano began, trying to sound soft, pleasant. "Give him a little more time"

"Our relationship has already lasted six months, there is no more time"

"He's just a boy, Gio." Cristiano grabbed his jeans. As soon as he attacked it, the memory of James' hand perched right on his trousers struck him like a sudden prick. "And anyway, he is small, at the same time that he wants to see me married, he wants to have me alone for him"

"I understand that," replied Georgina. "But you had a girlfriend before, was he the same with Irina?"

"With Irina we lasted a lot longer. I mean, you and I still have a few months of relationship"

"James just appeared and Junior seems to like him more than I do"

"He's just excited"

"He never got excited about me"

Cristiano had to smile, irremediably.

"Since when are you so insecure of yourself, Gio? Do you know why I liked you at first? Besides because you're beautiful, of course." Cristiano stepped forward to stand in front of her. Georgina was wearing under her black silk just her underwear and he dared to slip his playful hands around her waist. Cristiano could smell how the essence of Georgina immediately showed him how receptive she was, and that might have been the only thing that prompted him to draw her. Their chests grazed and then they shared a stare, Georgina pressed her lips together.

"What are you afraid of?" Whispered Cristiano.

And that time Georgina was completely sincere.

"That you also like James, more than you like me"

Cristiano didn't know what to say. For some reason, he felt unable to lie to Georgina, and if he then said "stay calm, that's not going to happen," he would be lying brazenly. So he just hugged her, tangled his arms around her waist and she hid her face in his neck and the two were silent for longer than they would have considered correct. Georgina's scent was not as sweet as James', and Cristiano had to admit to himself that none of the other Omegas he had ever met smelled the way James did.

However, that night he tried. He carried her to the bed and carefully undressed her, caressing her gently; Everything felt different even though they had done the same thing so many times. Georgina's hands slid into his hair and then his shirt was removed and Cristiano allowed it all, because it was the only way to prove to her but also to make himself believe that this was the right thing, that this was the way that things had to take. Georgina's lips slid down his neck, his collarbones, his chest, his stomach. She kissed him everywhere and then went back to his mouth, as if she was giving him a final kiss, but Cristiano couldn't whisper anything to her when she parted.

Georgina lies naked on him and Cristino puts his big hands on her hip and from the moment she starts to swing back and forth, Cristiano feels he has no more sanity. He feels his body on fire and his eyes cloudy, his sweaty forehead, every part sweaty, he looks at Georgina, her mouth open and her eyes closed, and he closes his eyes too, imitating her. The only image that appears in his head is James.

-

"I think it's a great start to fight for the Champions League." Cristiano finished the interview with an appropriate phrase and went to the dressing rooms, running the tunnel and following Marcelo but in reality without being aware of him, immersed in his thoughts. Sometimes he smiles here and there to some camera, proving that he is happy with the triumph and that is all.

There is a lot of noise in the dressing room and some music, reggaeton coming out of the speakers or the cell phones of any of the guys. Cristiano goes to his locker, grabs his towel and leaves for the shower, and the water is all he needs now to feel better. Dressing doesn't take too long and he decides to go out with Sergio, straight to the parking lots. They are talking about anything until Sergio asks about how he is going with Georgina and Cristiano raises his eyebrows, smiling with a half sarcastic, half-real grin.

"She is beautiful," says Sergio and Cristiano can't help but nod.

"I've never said otherwise"

"Is something wrong with Georgina?"

"What makes you think that?"

"The way you talk about her. When you first met her, you were excited to tell anything about her, and you had us all fed up, believe me."

It was the first genuine smile that Cristiano had given on the day, however, he said no more. They walked together to their cars and then Sergio stopped him.

"I saw you talking to Marcelo some time ago"

"I needed to vent with someone and he was there. After all, we have become close"

"Okay, now you have me here"

"You know how much I'd like to say "hey, let's have coffee and talk about everything" But then everything would get worse"

Sergio frowned.

"Cris," he said, feeling the ground. "Is it about Georgina?"

"Yeah"

"Did you meet someone else?"

"Actually, a person I met a long time ago appeared again"

With eyes, Sergio questioned to Cristiano everything. In a hurry, they both climbed into Cristiano's car and there, Cristiano felt he didn't have to have all the words and feelings and thoughts trapped inside just for him.

"And who is she?"

"It would be good to start by telling you that it is not a she. It is a he"

Sergio seemed to drown with his saliva.

"Did you change Georgina for a man?"

"I assure you it's not any man"

"And now you're going to start with that bullshit of "I'm in love and he's special"? For God's sake, Cristiano! That's not you"

"Sergio, shut up," Cristiano spat. He looked out the window and let air out of his mouth. "It's a long story. He's not a simple omega. He's not an omega I met at a party, I don't know, he's not anybody"

"And what makes this omega so important, so important that you are questioning your relationship with Georgina?"

"This omega that came back suddenly is the omega that gave birth to my son"

Sergio changed his face.

"What?" He released, stepping away from the seat.

"I ask you discretion, Sergio, I know that I can trust you, can't I? Only my mother knows, Marcelo and you"

For a few seconds there was only a deep, sharp silence.

"You have to tell me from the beginning"

Cristiano told him everything, he didn't omit a detail, staring at him, doing anything to make him understand. He told him about James's wishes, how he had finally given in, because he understood all that James did in Junior. He told him about that afternoon after the game, out of the stadium. And in the end, he let go.

"I told him stupid things, it's like I couldn't control myself like an alpha. There's something about him, I don't know, I saw him with Junior and I realized why I slept with him in the first place"

"And why you never forgot him," Sergio added, and Cristiano raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, I never forgot him. No, you know what? I didn't remember his face or his body or anything but his scent... his scent is like... it is present in my memory, always. I could never forget it. And Junior seems to understand it too. When we returned home he said "I liked his smell just like I like yours".

"Of course he would like his scent, he is his mother"

"His mother, but he's nothing of mine"

"You wish he were, don't you?"

Cristiano was silent.

"Jesus, Cris." Sergio looked again out the window, in case there were people around him, but the parking lot was empty and the windows closed, he couldn't hear anything. "And what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's just an emotion, something temporary. Maybe I'm just a little excited because he gave me a son and, you know, all that shitty instinct"

"Would it be the same if Georgina had a child with you?" Sergio ventured to ask. "And then you'd walk away, would you look at her as you look at James? Would you feel the same way you feel about James now?"

"Shit, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know"

"I don't think Georgina deserves this"

"I'm not doing anything to her," Cristiano immediately exclaimed.

"No, yes you are. Finish your relationship"

"It would be too obvious. She told me last night, she said, "I'm afraid you like James too and that you like him more than you like me"

"That's already happening now"

Cristiano ran a hand over his forehead.

"Sergio, I swear on the life of my son, that I just want to do things right"

"I believe you, I know you and I believe you, I know your intentions are good but Cris, don't make mistakes, don't hurt anyone"

"It's impossible to get out of this without harming anyone"

It was as if after that, neither of them had any more words.

"You're going to see James after the game, aren't you? You're thinking of seeing him before you see Georgina," he said afterwards.

"I'm actually thinking about seeing James with Junior. I want to take him to where James is."

"Don't use Junior as an excuse"

"I don't do it"

"And be careful, God, if anyone ever sees you ..."

Cristiano only smiled.

"You know what? Sometimes I'd rather have them do it"

Sergio smiled too. He hit him on the shoulder and shook his head, over and over again.

"You are suicidal"

"But I know I'm going to make Junior happy"

"And you'll make yourself happy, by the way. You'll only make Georgina unhappy, but two happy and one unhappy is not so bad, is it?"

Cristiano no longer knows if Sergio is sincere or is just being sarcastic. He chooses to believe the first choice.

-

James was ordering the money he had collected during the day when he heard it. The doorbell was ringing. His window didn't face the entrance of the house so he couldn't see who was, but he was aware that the other tenants had gone out to work and more or less could imagine that the mistress of the house was occupied. He thought about finishing his money, but whoever was at the door was insistent. At last he stood and opened the door of the room, the silence was the only thing that flooded the hallways. He walked down the hall and grabbed the door knob, pulled it toward him, and then it went fast, like a blizzard. Junior's voice suddenly flooded his ears and felt his arms between his waist. He ducked his head and saw Junior's hair, then looked up and Cristiano's eyes met his.

"What's up," Cristiano said. James felt Junior escape from his arms and blinked continuously, still not understanding. "Can we come in?" He asked later.

James kept his mouth shut.

"James, we came to greet you after the game"

"We can enter?" Cristiano repeated and just there James realized what was happening.

"Oh, sure. Yeah, of course. Yes, in fact, come in fast. Come on"

Junior ran in, but James stopped Cristiano, after closing the door.

"Did anyone follow you?" He asked quietly.

"No one," answered Cristiano. "Or so I think"

James tapped Cristiano on the arm with his hand and Cristiano held his laughter. He cannot help it, but when he's with James he feels like a teenager.

"Is this your house?" Junior asked quickly, looking up and around, spinning around.

"Yes, this is where I live." James puts his hands on his waist. "It's cheaper than renting a house for me alone, besides, I don't need so much space. Although in Colombia, where I was born, I had a house for myself, for my mom, for my stepfather and for my sister "

"Is it nice there, in Colombia?" Junior looked at him wide-eyed.

"I assure you it's warmer than it does here," James smiled.

"We could go to Colombia someday" Junior proposes the idea to Cristiano and there is only one complicit look that is shared by James and him.

"Yeah, sure. When we go on vacation, maybe"

"Why don't you come to my room? It seems that the owner of the hostal is sleeping, but I don't know if you want her to see you both ..." says James and at the end Cristiano nods.

The three of them rush, whispering, to James's room and when he opens the door, Junior steps forward and scans the four walls and the little things inside and then looks at Cristiano and also at James and James wrinkles his eyebrows and says "I know it's not too big but..." Junior shakes his head and sits down on the bed. James doesn't hold back a sharp chuckle and runs to sit with him, wrapping his arm around him and pulling Junior close.

"I'm so glad you're here," he tells him, still holding him tight to his side. "I thought of you all night and all day. I would never have thought that you would come to see me here"

"Dad asked me if I wanted to see you and I said yes, then he said that we could come to your house after the game and I waited all that time"

James looks at Cristiano.

"Thank you, Cristiano," he said sincerely.

"You have nothing to thank for, Cristiano and I enjoyed all this, we enjoyed seeing you"

"You know I enjoy seeing the two of you too." James told the truth. He looked down, then at Junior, and smiled at them both. "Okay, what did you do all day? Did you go to the stadium?"

"No, I had to do homework!" Junior made a pout. "But if I did all of them, we could come and see you"

"Junior." James sighed in his hair. It seemed unreal, too good to be true; James felt obliterated, sucking up all the smell of Junior, wanting to remember it forever. Because it was present all the time, as a living threat, the possibility that suddenly Cristiano would repent of everything and Junior escaped his arms, again. He had to hold him tighter, Junior chuckled. "God, okay, there are not many things to do here but we could go to the backyard while there is nobody and play football"

"Or we could only watch TV, I'm sure Cris would enjoy lying with you in bed, watching cartoons," Cristiano dared to murmur.

"Really, Junior?" James asked.

"At this time Adventure Time is airing"

"Then we are totally watching Adventure Time"

James turned on the television and Junior made a space between the two pillows, he was talking about Princess Bubblegum and the extra chapter of the other week and James was surprised by everything but in fact he had no idea of anything. But Junior's voice and his cool little hands, which ran down his face with red cheeks, had all the meaning for him. Junior turned down the volume of the television, while the commercials followed the opening, stretched his lips and asked.

"Dad, come and lie with us"

Cristiano, sitting on the edge of the bed, listened to Junior's words but didn't look at him. As usual, as he had been doing since James had reappeared in his life, he saw him, but James wasn't looking, and his eyes were on the television. So Cristiano made no move. He stood there in the corner, waiting for some reaction from James, some action that give him a clue, that tell him anything. James opened his mouth for a moment, licked his lips. He dared to look at Cristiano and in the end, he did. He smiled at him with a small grin and nodded.

"Yeah, Cristiano, come with us"

The three of them are a warm and tight mass covering themselves from the cold wind of Madrid in a bed of a square and a half.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always try to update on fridays but I was so busy this week! I'll try anyway to update next friday as usual!
> 
> Some details! Cristiano is in big trouble, thinking of James when he is having sex with Georgina. And Sergio is a good confidant but he is also realistic.
> 
> James is so so happy to have Junior on his small room he would do anything just to please his son. In part is because of that that he asks Cristiano to stay in bed with him and Junior, but also because Cristiano is so important in his life.
> 
> I just found the perfect song for this story, I'll tell you more about it later! 
> 
> Thanks for your kudos, comments and visits!


	9. Cristiano doesn't seem to mind

"What's your favorite food?"

James thought he had misheard.

"What?"

"I asked you what your favorite food is," repeated Cristiano.

Junior had made a space in his lap, tightening the waist with his arms, settling here and there until he finally found the right place between his belly. The television made nothing more than an ambient sound and in the small room Cristiano's eyes seemed more penetrating than anything. James didn't want to move or say anything, or try anything, Junior's weight on his body was sweetly gentle, reassuring. But the question of Cristiano fell different, made him restless and curious. He looked at him only once, his eyes narrowed, then he saw the TV again, but not really looking.

"I don't know, I don't have a favorite meal. I like roast chicken and fries, who doesn't like that?"

Cristiano shook his head. In bed, there was nothing that really separated them. His arms brushed with fullness.

"I mean some dish of your country, something that you like too much"

"Why are you asking me such things?"

"I want to know you"

It sounded strange and James at least took it that way. Slowly, he plunged his fingers into Junior's hair, caressing it carefully. He glanced at Cristiano and shifted uneasily, his brow furrowed. The window was closed and James just noticed that when the scent of Cristiano appeared in his nose, demanding, penetrating, making itself a place there inside. James didn't give up looking at him then fixedly and the contact of their eyes was overwhelming, but Cristiano smiled, and James had no choice but to smile with curiosity.

"Maybe arepas?" He says quietly. "Those stuffed cakes... what's your favorite food?"

"Cod" Cristiano answers quickly and Jame chuckles.

"Cod? Fish?"

"Yes. Wrapped in onion, and... very tasty"

James scratches his nose, but ends up nodding, looking down, at Junior who sleeps with his cheek resting on his belly. He can't stop caressing him whole, feeling his warmth, having him around. When he looks up to see Cristiano, he dares to whisper, just like that:

"What's Junior's favorite food?" And there's always that horrible feeling, that piercing pain that eats him inside because he doesn't know a single thing about the baby that grew in his tummy nine months. But Cristiano doesn't take it face to face with him and when he sits close, discreetly, James hears him whisper:

"I'm sure that arepas will become his favorite food as soon as he sees you prepare them"

James lowers his eyes to Cristiano's lips and he hates doing that.

"How can you be so sure?" He begins, speaking slowly. "That Junior is going to love me"

"He loves you right now," Cristiano argued.

"Yeah, but..." James bit his lip. "He wants me now, just because I am an omega and I can play football and he is like amazed"

"He loves you because of your scent"

"But will he still love me when he knows the truth?"

"When he knows that you are his other dad he will be jumping for joy"

What Cristiano says makes James smile.

"And when we tell him everything, when do you tell him how things went? Right there, will he still love me?"

"Let's not tell him the truth, let's not say the bad part of the truth"

"And what excuse will I have? What am I going to tell him when he asks me, why did you leave me?"

"You still have time to think about it"

Outside, the sun went down a long time ago and James isn't so sure how many hours have passed. Within his murmuring with Cristiano, he has been able to hear a couple of people but nothing more, no one has knocked on his door and no one has come to know how he is. Junior didn't want to leave the room and was comfortable with the presence of Cristiano there, with James' body holding him whole, they watched television all the time and nobody talked about football. Suddenly it was just the curious questions of James to which Junior answered with another batch of equally curious questions, and Cristiano was laughing at this and this other, whispering in Junior's ear funny words that Junior later repeated to James and then the three of them laughed.

James had allowed Junior to jump on his bed and Cristiano had held him when he tripped and almost fell straight to the floor. James covered his mouth and hurried, crawling across the bed and resting his arms on Cristiano's forearms and tilting his head to Junior's face. Junior opened his eyes in a swift, two-by-three moment and said "Boo!" Standing up like a restless child. He wrapped his arms around his neck and grabbed himself hard and from there no one took him for several seconds, James thought minutes had passed. Did I scared you? Junior whispered and James looked at him with infinite tenderness. The hand of Cristiano on his shoulder was the only thing that allowed James to go ahead.

And then, watching the television lying on James' lap, Junior had fallen asleep. Closing his eyes for a moment, fixing his gaze on the screen, yawning and snuggling, James held him close, his hands always, always, always in his hair; In his head the images of what could have been were flying, imagining with nostalgia that Junior was still a baby, that things were following the course that they had to follow. He had no idea of time or anything.

The whisper of Cristiano near his face made him close his eyes.

"We should go"

"So soon?"

"I'm sorry." Cristiano felt he needed to apologize. "We could go out another day. Junior will always want to see you and so do I. We all had a good time, don't you think? Watching cartoons and eating cookies"

"When you said you wanted us to know each other... did you mean this?"

James points at the whole room with his eyes. For some moments there is only silence, until Cristiano feels the inevitable necessity, the inescapable duty, the present instinct more than ever: he takes James with him, puts his arm around his shoulders and supports his lips very short in his hair. He can feel his scent, more than ever. James closes his eyes.

"I mean this," says Cristiano.

James feels his throat tight.

-

"Mom, I'm fine.I haven't gotten a job yet but... but I'm juggling the ball and picking up some coins"

"Did you find him?" Then Pilar murmurs softly. Back in the room, James smiles stealthily.

"Yes, I found him"

There is a single jubilant shriek that crosses the cellphone and reaches the ears of James.

"My God, my God, James, what is he like, does he look like you? Did you talk to him?"

James couldn't say much because Pilar isn't aware of everything. The few things James had told her before leaving Colombia were that his son's father was now living in Madrid, that he knew the address, that they had been in contact and he would allow him to see the child. That even maybe he could get to have a joint custody. He had omitted the most important, most significant details: he hadn't said a single word about Cristiano Ronaldo and knew that Pilar would never be able to imagine that he was the alpha James was talking about. He had to omit other things, too. He lied about the real name of Junior, and just said that his name was just Junior. Pilar had insisted and said: but what is his real name? What is his father's name? And James had invented a silly excuse, something that made him out of the way.

But he couldn't lie at all.

"No," he said later. "No, actually, he doesn't look like me at all. He looks like his dad, his alpha dad"

"Describe him to me"

"Uhm" James looks across the bed, where hours ago Cristiano lay back. "He's got brown, curly hair. Brown eyes, he has olive skin, he's tall. His smile is the brightest and most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and you know what, Mom? He loves football. He'll be a football player, I'm sure. If he's an alpha, he's going to be the best footballer. I just want him to be an alpha"

"And what did he tell you? Did you tell him already that you are his father? Did you tell him, James?" Pilar questions with anxiety.

"No, I didn't"

"Why? You were there for that"

"Yeah, but... Mom, it's difficult. He doesn't know anything about me until now. He has no idea who his other dad is, he has no idea of anything. It's going to take time so... I hope to stay here for a few weeks, maybe some more months. Junior's dad has been very nice to me and I don't want to abuse that. After all, I was the one who agreed to give him the total custody of Junior"

"How wrong you were, son"

Pilar is aware that she touchs something deep in James and James knows it too.

"I swear that there is no day of my life when I don't regret it"

"Does he even love you, James? Does Junior love you?"

"He told his dad he liked my scent," James laughs, looking up at the ceiling. "And every time he sees me, it's like he misses me a lot... A few hours ago they were here, Junior and his dad... We watched TV and Junior fell asleep on me, his ear pressed to my belly"

The empty silence James can hear, until Pilar's voice sounds husky, strange, as if she were crying.

"You did the same," she whispered. "When you were little, you slept on me, near my tummy"

And James understands everything, everything.

"Mom, I just want to have him with me" And in fact, he just wanted to be at home, in Colombia, raising Junior as he always should have been, teaching him things, telling him things, making him a child of his. Sometimes James feels that his guilt has slowed down, but always, always guilt comes later stronger and more painful, and James doesn't feel able to endure it any longer.

"When do you think you can tell him the truth?"

If only to tell the truth was so easy, if there wasn't a bad part of the truth.

"I want to do it as soon as possible," James manages to say. "And as soon as I do, you're going to be the first to know"

"Did you take a picture of Junior? I want to see him" exclaims Pilar and James closes his eyes.

"Sorry," he whispers. "No photos yet"

"Will you at least tell him that he has a grandmother in Colombia who is waiting for him with a heart full of hope and joy?"

When James opens his eyes, there are two rebellious tears that roll down his cheeks and fall to the blankets and on his face appears a sad, but sincere, very sincere smile.

"It'll be the first thing I'll tell him. It'll be the first thing I'll tell him"

-

When James returned on Monday to play outside the stadium, people seemed to notice him more. The people who were going to watch Real Madrid stopped earlier and left a couple of coins, even bills. They congratulated him on his talent, they said "you should be in there" and James had to laugh, shaking his head to one side and another and thanking. Immediately he was playing again and pretending that the photos that some fans took him didn't seem to affect or deconcentrate him. Someone mentioned something about his shirt with the number 7 but James ignored it, passing the ball from his left knee to his right knee.

With the passing of the minutes, people dispersed, becoming more and more distant and silent, the noise of the afternoon faded until outside the stadium were a couple of vendors and he and no one else. James went to sit on a lonely bench just beyond the main entrance of the stadium, picked up his money in a small pouch which he kept immediately in a dark bag. From his bag he also removed a bottle of water he had bought in the store near the hostel and sipped, looking to one side and another. On that day, the Madrid sun only tempered the city and there weren't many clouds. James frowned at the sky and closed the bottle.

The noise could be heard from outside and James thought what would be the score of the match, thought if it was that Real Madrid was on Juventus, wondered if it was that Cristiano had scored a goal. It didn't take much luck to assume that Cristiano could have managed to put the ball in the rival arc and all what James was hoping at that moment was to know that Junior was being happy because his dad would give the victory to his team. James feels a little confused, anyway, he would also be happy to know that not only Junior is happy, that Cristiano is happy too.

And there were a lot of things about that that James wasn't yet sure of. Cristiano was acting in a way that brought to mind all the memories of that night, which made him feel in one way or another that theirs could be more than just a link called Cristiano Ronaldo Junior. But James was no longer eighteen and he was no longer innocent, he didn't feel able to trust again that Cristiano and he could form a relationship like any alpha and omega would do. Besides, Cristiano had a girlfriend. Georgina was pretty and young and Cristiano seemed to love her and she seemed to love him, but all those assumptions to James faded when he saw Cristiano's eyes and when Cristiano looked back at him.

James didn't know why Cristiano was trying. Why he was really behaving that way. He didn't want to know, maybe. He didn't feel like discovering it. It was all too old to change. The only thing James wanted was to have the opportunity to tell Junior that he was his dad and take him to Colombia on vacation, and then, perhaps, have a joint custody with Cristiano and live with Junior. Although those desires to have Junior only for him were never erased definitively, but they remained there, under the surface but sharp. James had to sigh deeply to get those thoughts out of his head.

He was confused. Cristiano made him confused. Sometimes he wanted to say "you're with Georgina" but at the same time he knows that he would have no excuse if Cristiano answered that he would leave Georgina for him.

James looked up again, then shook his head.

He looked at the watch on his wrist and found that the time of the end of the match was approaching, because there were many people coming out and appearing around suddenly. He decided for one last time, taking his bag and his ball, left his bag near a corner, stretched the blue cloth and started everything back. He was exhausted but could get a little more money if it was that Real Madrid had won and people saw him there, wearing Ronaldo's shirt. Between maneuver and maneuver, he learned that Real Madrid had effectively won and that two goals had been Cristiano's. A smile spread over his lips without even wanting it.

The sun was no longer visible and James stretched himself, looking from side to side. He just wanted to go back to the hostel. He saved his money, his ball and hung his bag on his shoulder and disappeared from there, from the front of the stadium, as if he had never been there in the first place. James thought that if the money was enough, he could buy Junior a present and tell him that he knew his birthday hadn't been long ago. He turned around the stadium, heading back to the corner of the street to get the Madrid metro. He had a lot of things in his head when he looked, hidden, at the rear exit of the Bernabéu, the one he had visited that time Junior had run to him.

He looked back, several fans were waiting for the players to leave. They had to cross a short stretch until the actual exit of the stadium, which was filled with children and men and women with T-shirts and cell phones and markers. James made room among all the people, looking with innocent curiosity. He saw Marcelo and Bale and Benzema and Isco and Toni Kroos leave until he saw him. Cristiano walked beside Sergio talking about something that no one could hear because of the screams and James looked around, tried to spot Junior, hoping that he had attended the game. But it was only Cristiano, and James found a place near bars. He leaned against them, blowing air through his mouth. All the people around him moved, laughed, spoke aloud, waved their hands. Cristiano passed by and then it happened. James felt like he was in a hurricane.

Cristiano is looking at him, Cristiano has stopped and Sergio has stayed next, frowning. The other people try to get a picture of Ronaldo, an autograph, a sign, something, but Cristiano is just looking at him. If James was eighteen, this, what is happening now, would be all he ever wanted. And Cristiano's eyes tell him things, they talk to him, they smile at him but James cannot read any of it, the time is like stopped, like stalled. There are a lot of cameras and journalists around and Cristiano doesn't seem to mind taking a chance, but James does.

Sergio is the one who breaks the contact, pulling Cristiano by the arm and taking him way to the exit but it's useless, everything has been too slow, too imprecise. Journalists and paparazzi have what they need, and when James sneaks into people, that's all he can think of. But, again, that doesn't seem to matter to Cristiano.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cristiano is trying to really know James and James is trying to tell all the truth to his mom but he just can't.
> 
> James and Cristiano met outside the stadium and they couldn't avoid a deep gaze so now the paparazzi have some photos of this mysterious encounter. Maybe James will get a place in gossip magazines. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your visits, kudos and comments!


	10. The whole life

In the morning, Cristiano woke up by the strong steps of whoever was walking down the hall to his room. He barely stood up and with narrowed eyes he looked at the time on his watch: it's half past nine. Today was Tuesday and tomorrow there was no training and Cristiano had allowed himself to sleep a little longer; next to him, Junior was breathing air with his mouth open and was moving everywhere. Cristiano got to his feet, still half disoriented. The steps outside threatened to knock down the door that used to be bolted shut; Junior blinked slowly.

"Dad, what's going on?"

"It's Grandma, I think, go back to sleep, I'll see what she wants"

As obedient as usually, Junior buried his face in one of the pillows. Cristiano opened the door and suddenly it happened. His mother's face, confused, angry, sad, irritated, appeared in front of his, all raised eyebrows and eyes that questioned what all this commotion was. Dolores didn't say anything, didn't open her lips, didn't frown but her gaze told him everything. Cristiano only gave a brief, fleeting glance at his son, admitting anything Dolores didn't say in words. He closed the door, led her to the living room, and he sat down. The room was lit only with a dim light coming from the lamp in the corner. There wasn't a sound. Dolores licked her lips and sighed. Everything about Cristiano seemed like a time bomb about to explode.

"I saw it on TV" was the first thing Dolores said. Cristiano remained silent, staring at her. "I saw it on TV. They know everything"

"What do they know?" It didn't occur to Cristiano to say more. He knew everything they knew but didn't feel able to utter anything else. Partly because he was scared of what could happen now that they knew, partly because he was terribly relieved.

"They know about James, they know James exists, they know he's here, they know that you and him know each other, and they'll know everything, Cristiano, they'll know everything"

"He appeared out of nowhere," Cristiano dared to murmur. "Like that time in Medellin, like the first time, he appeared in the crowd, not wanting to look at me, but there, standing, waiting for me somehow, and I looked at him too"

Dolores sat beside him. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. Cristiano knew that the only person who would surely stay with him for the rest of his life was his mother. And she couldn't deny him anything. So many times, Cristiano was aware that his mother didn't need to communicate what she felt in words. Dolores knew him so much, so much, so much. But Dolores loved Junior and him both too, Cristiano knew that her love was a shield, an indelible protection.

But there were so many things, so many things that Cristiano was facing now, that he was learning to accept and to value. James was one. James had never really left, James had never completely disappeared from his life. James was alive all the time in Junior, James was by his side for six years and Cristiano hadn't been able to notice it at first. Before all he could see when he looked Junior in the eye was himself. But the arrival of James came as something enlightening, something that made him realize how wrong he was.

Probably biology, Cristiano had that in mind. Probably everything appeared in him because he was an alpha and James was an omega and there was something that bound them hopelessly and what Cristiano could never regret in his life. He didn't regret that night, didn't regret sleeping with James, didn't regret taking him to that motel, didn't regret anything. He was glad that he had unconsciously chosen James to become the mother of his son. And he was glad that James had appeared, that he had come back to ask him to see Junior, that Junior loved him so much.

Maybe he loved him too, after all. There was something, inexplicable, running through his body every time he looked at James, talked to James, every time he was close to him. And let everyone know. Let everyone know that James and he had something, something that was called Junior and that it was James who gave him that precious child. Let everyone know. Georgina could know, his mother could know. And he wanted to take it. He wanted to assume the only truth: that James was more important in his life than he ever thought. That he wanted James to stay in his life.

"Cristiano" Dolores whispered. "Do you know what everyone will say? Do you know that they will judge you, that they will say horrible things?"

Cristiano nodded softly, as if he were a child and Dolores scolded him, warned him.

"And when they find out that James gave birth to Junior," she continued. "When they know, they will destroy you. They are going to talk atrocities about Junior. They are going to make fun of you, there are so many prejudices, for God's sake. If you could only fake a normal life, if you could just keep quiet... Georgina is a good girl and she loves you"

"I don't love her"

And Cristiano's reason seemed the most valid of all.

"I don't love her in the way I love James"

Dolores looked at him with saddest eyes.

"You barely know him, Cristiano," she tried to argue.

"What if he wants me too?" Cristiano let out, as drowned. "If he didn't came only for Junior, if he came for me, what about that?"

"Cristiano" Dolores sounded hoarse. "Cristiano, you are a footballer, you are famous, you are an international star. He is no one. He was lucky, that night he met you. I don't want you to be wrong, I don't want you to have an image of that omega which is not the right one"

"Mom, the only image I have of James, the only image I need of him, is that of Junior, that of our son, his and mine and that is the whole image that I want to have, that is the image in that I trust "

"I just want you to make no mistake, I want to protect you"

Cristiano smiled.

"Trust me. Let everyone know, let everyone speak. Let them come and try to talk to me, let the paparazzi chase me, I'll shout it from the hills"

"And how will you tell Junior? How are you going to explain it to him?"

"That's a matter that is mine and James', we're going to do it well, Mom, I don't want to have to keep hiding, I don't want James to have to hide anymore"

"The whole life was the same, wasn't it? The whole life"

"All my life, Mom, all my life"

-

James dialed Cristiano's number and waited, sitting there on the bed. Although he could no longer hear the voices outside the hostel, he had everything in his head, turning it around incessantly. The television surprised him early, about to start looking for a job. Suddenly they knew everything, they knew his name, they knew he was Colombian, they knew where he lived. And then he hadn't dared to leave the house, sneaking through the windows to the group of people positioned along the street. He had to return to his room and endure the haunting and curious glances of all the other people who shared the hostel with him. James hadn't had an explanation, he hadn't felt able to explain to anyone, partly because there was nothing to explain, there was no need to be understood.

His cell phone beeps made him anxious. He sighed deeply and stared at the television, still on but very low in volume. He wondered if Junior knew, if Junior had turned on the TV in the morning and found the picture of the two of them outside the stadium.

"Hello?"

"Cristiano"

James doesn't know if it is that Cristiano smiled wherever he was, for the seconds of silence that appeared between them.

"Hey," he replied no more. James swallows, looking up at the ceiling.

"They know"

"Yeah"

"They're outside, they've been here all day"

"I'm sorry"

James crushes his lips.

"Does Junior know?" dares to ask, still afraid to know the answer.

"He's here, sitting next to me"

"What are you going to tell him?"

"Whatever he wants to know"

James glances around his small room. The ticking of the clock accompanies him alongside the soft murmur of the people on the television. On the telephone he hears Cristiano's breathing and the distant sound of Junior's voice. The rest is superfluous. If journalists are still outside the hostel, if they are trying to get in, if the people he shares with the house want to know all about the scandal. The TV screen proves it for everyone to realize: The new love of Cristiano Ronaldo. And his name down there, in smaller letters. James Rodriguez, a Colombian. But nobody still dares to make a parallel, no one dares mention it, it seems as if no one could have noticed.

James Rodriguez, the mother of Cristiano Ronaldo's son?

James isn't so sure anymore if he wants no one to notice.

"Georgina" James thinks to say, after closing his eyes. "Does Georgina know?"

"Everyone knows, James"

That phrase is like a slap, James cannot understand.

"Did she call you?"

"Not yet, but she will."

"What are you gonna tell her?"

"I will be honest"

"You haven't even been honest with me"

Through the cell phone he hears Cristiano's laughter, soft, careful, mocking half, too.

"Do you know what we should do?" asks Cristiano and James narrows his eyes.

"I don't"

"Go out together. To a mall, shopping, go for an ice cream, I don't know, for everybody to see us. You should come with me to get Junior to school tomorrow and we would not say anything, that would be all our answer. We would remain silent, then they would know everything"

James had to laugh too. Like a broken whimper, as if he were about to start crying, but he no longer felt like crying or complaining or doing anything.

"You're crazy" was the only thing he could answer.

"I know"

"Cristiano" James began. "When you allowed me to talk to Junior, I promised that I wouldn't do anything to harm your career. I promised you that I would remain silent, for Junior and you, because your career and your life would be much easier if you stayed with Georgina and you forget about me"

"But I don't want to forget you"

That's all.

"I'm going to hang up, okay?" whispers James. "I'm going to watch TV until I get fed up and I'm not going to answer my cell phone, unless it's you or my mom or Junior. I'm not going to leave the room today, I'm not even going to eat. I want to stay in bed and listen to everything that people will say about me without even knowing me. Give Junior a kiss for me"

"Wait until Georgina gives the exclusive," Cristiano responds. "Wait until then"

"I will do it"

James is not expecting a farewell from Cristiano and hangs up the phone. I don't want to forget you, I don't want to forget you, I don't want to forget you, the words of Cristiano hit in his head over and over and over and over and over and with that, James believes he could endure all the nonsense of the world.

-

After a couple of days, the press has moved away from the hostel and James feels able to go out again. He does a couple of juggling near a corner but now all people know who he is and they are always looking at him, asking him questions. He ignores them, shakes his head and goes to another corner, hoping people cannot recognize his face now. Sometimes a few vans pass by and James is sure there's paparazzi inside, so he looks away and pretends he has not noticed, although pretending has never been given too well for him.

Back home, James lets himself have a coffee in a small restaurant. People don't seem to know who he is, though James hears their curious whispers and notes their discreet looks. He eats a cheese sandwich, tries to hurry as much as he can. He doesn't feel safe out yet, even when his need makes him go to the streets irredeemably. Everything is too suffocating. Sometimes James thinks of abandoning everything, going back to Colombia and forgetting forever about Cristiano Ronaldo and returning to being who he was back home, but Junior is always present, as the most powerful cable. James knows it and repeats it every time he feels he will flinch: he gave birth to Junior and it is Junior who keeps him tied to sanity at all times.

James wants to talk to him. He wants to call him or see him, give him a hug and a kiss. He doesn't know what he is going to say when Junior asks what that photo means, what is there between his dad and him but doesn't feel that this is a disadvantage. Maybe he didn't even make room for questions. Perhaps Junior would just run to him and the two of them would stay in silence, hugging each other tightly.

The road to the hostel is quiet. It's cold and it looks like it's going to rain. James is looking at the floor and the sky between shifts, with the cell phone hidden in the pocket of his jacket. He notices the dark car parked on the front street, and imagines it's the press again. He gets the key out of his bag, tries to open and enter the hostel as fast as he can. He can hear a few quick steps, the black shadow of someone approaching his back. James fails, it's the wrong key and a hand rests on the grating. At first James cannot recognize the ring.

Georgina is wearing a long coat and a dark capeline. James turns and looks into her eyes and their confrontation is confusing and heartbreaking.

"Can we talk there inside? I think we owe a conversation"

James looks toward the hostel and then to the car. He glances back at Georgina and finally nods, letting her pass first through the open fence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry because this took so long! I'm so busy with university and stuff but i didn't forget this story! I will try to update as soon as possible!
> 
> So Dolores and Georgina and everybody knows! Cristiano feels that he just needs to tell the world about James but James isn't so sure. And Georgina needs answers so she went to look for them with James!
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and visits, and again, sorry!!


	11. A little bit of truth

James had never felt more uncomfortable in his own small room, like that afternoon when Georgina walked to his bed and sat down near the pillow. He had a lot of things in his head, right there he had reclined with Cristiano, with the son of the two of them, and he didn't like that Georgina was occupying the place that should only be of him, of Cristiano and Junior. He felt unable to say anything, in any way. He could understand Georgina and empathize with her. James couldn't help feeling the bad one in the story. The omega that had come to Spain out of nowhere, had won the love of Cristiano Ronaldo's son and had taken advantage of the love of him. Or at least, the one that had convinced him to stop simulating in front of everyone. James wasn't sure if maybe Georgina knew about Cristiano's affairs with omegas males. But he couldn't be more convinced that Georgina would never understand the real weight of the situation.

"Do you want something to drink?" he offered, out of courtesy. No, thank you, it came out soft from Georgina's mouth and James didn't want to sit next to her. He did not know what to say.

"I've been with Cristiano for several months" Georgina suddenly released looking into his eyes. "I know his mother, his siblings, his nephews, his son, and I love them, and I know they love me, I thought Cristiano loved me too"

James shrugs his shoulders there in the corner near the door where he is standing. He cannot help but feel sad for Georgina and feel guilty for being the cause of her eyes becoming dark. There is a lot of confusion at that moment for James, there are not many things that he is sure of. He wants to tell Georgina "Cristiano and I are nothing" but he knows he would be lying. James also knows that he doesn't want to be just the mother of Cristiano Ronaldo's son. Remorse invades him when he begins to think that he arrived at Cristiano and Junior too late.

"Cristiano loves you, a lot" he says. Georgina smiles but then quickly returns to her expressionless face.

"Did he say that to you?"

James decides to lie.

"Yes"

"What did you say to him? How did you suddenly appear?"

"I was just trying to make money in the streets and Cris..."

"Tell me the truth," Georgina rebuked him. "You and Cristiano knew each other before?"

Silence is everything that appears inside the room.

"Because if it's not like that then there's no explanation, what did you do to him, what did you do to make it just a few months for him to be able to do to me something like this?"

Sometimes, James would like to shout the truth to everyone. Call a news channel and tell them that he is the mother of Cristiano Ronaldo's son and that he is back in Madrid to recover Junior. He would like to feel all the pressure of the world on his shoulders until there was no other chance than to let go of the truth. That even Georgina found out. That she would understand that Cristiano doesn't leave her for any omega male, but leaves her for the omega that gave birth to his son. But that is asking too much and he and Cristiano have not shared anything other than soft conversations in the room. A deep look in front of everyone, with the world around them. There is nothing else between them after that night in Medellin, nor an approach, nothing really intimate.

James wants to scream that to Georgina.

"Nothing," he whispers then. "Nothing, nothing happened between Cristiano and me. He loves you, Georgina, he doesn't want to hurt you, he would not be able"

It was getting dark outside and James couldn't tell when the hours went by so fast.

"Nothing has happened between Cristiano and I. No kiss, nothing, ours is something... deeper, it's beyond the physical, I'm so sorry, Georgina, I swear, it was never my intention to make you feel that way, I never wanted to cause what I'm causing between you and Cristiano, I just..."

Georgina seemed to be aware of something important from one moment to the next.

"Who are you?" she asked, raising her head and watching him up and down. "Who you are?" continued to scold him. "Are you really James, are you really from Colombia?"

The window in the room was closed and James was tempted to come and open it, only to not feel that Georgina's questions, her smell, her presence and all of it was suffocating him.

"I am," he said in whispers. "I didn't lie"

"Why did you come here? What's here? Who are you looking for?"

At James' silence, Georgina stood up. She walked to him and stood in front of him, looking at James with overwhelming eyes. Georgina was an omega, James could sense it only by her scent, but her scent was strong, dominant, acid, James had never felt more challenged and more defeated. He had to recoil instinctively, feeling vulnerable, believing that her eyes could undress him and know everything that he had inside, all the secrets that he kept jealously. He shook his head, unable to open his mouth. Georgina looked furious or about to cry, James couldn't decipher well what emotion was in her.

"Did you meet Cristiano before, is that why he behaves like that?"

Gritting his teeth was the only way James found to calm down his wishes to scream.

"Or is Junior? Why does Junior love you? What did you do to him?"

James just felt on his face the warm moisture of a couple of tears rolling down his cheek.

Georgina opened her mouth.

"It's Junior," she said, almost out of breath. "All this is about Junior"

James waited for Georgina's question but it was as if Georgina didn't need to check the things she was imagining. Her eyes went to his belly and from there to his face and James remained motionless, with his lips parted but his eyes dry and cold. Georgina frowned and then looked at the carpeted floor. Instantly she looked up at the door and made space between James and the television, just to get out of that room. She didn't say anything to James but James followed her, suddenly too hyperventilated and scared. With the keys in his hand he found her in the door that faced the street.

"Please," he whispered. "Please, don't tell anyone"

"Does Cristiano know?" It was all that Georgina could articulate.

"Of course he knows" James said in a small voice.

"Can you open the grille?"

James put the key in the bolt and Georgina slipped away like water. James didn't have the courage to shout from the hostel what he had begged from Georgina. He only saw her get into the black truck and lose to the north.

-

"Tomorrow is Saturday, I have an idea," said Junior, turning off the television. Cristiano had recently returned from a game against Valencia and was drying his damp hair with a towel.

"Oh, yeah? what idea is that?" he asked, sitting on the couch.

"We can put our clothes in a little bag, get in the car and go to James' house, we'll tell him that we come to spend the weekend with him and we stay in the hostel until Sunday"

Cristiano smiled inevitably. The things that people talked about on TV had bottomed out in Junior without him being able to do anything about it. Among so many questions from his son, Cristiano had decided to ask Junior himself what he thought of a hypothetical relationship between him and James, just groping the ground, just trying to know how willing Junior was to share him with someone else. But Junior was more anxious to feel James as a part of the two of them and he was receptive, smiling and jumping back and forth asking him the wedding date. Cristiano had laughed and said, hey, don't go so fast, but Junior's response had given him tremendous peace. He didn't have to do something that would make the rest of the world happy, they would judge him no matter what, he had to do something that made his son feel good.

And James made him feel good, James made them both feel good.

"Don't you think it's too risky?" he said, holding back the urge to tell him that this was the best idea in the world. "First, James could be busy and we could get in the way"

Junior frowned.

"James said that I would never be a nuisance"

"Okay, but think about this, James' room is very small, how could the three of us fit in there?"

"That's the good part," Junior dared to say. "Like that day when we fell asleep in bed, the three of us, remember?"

"Yeah"

"I liked that, James smells so good and he's always warm"

Cristiano called Junior with his hand and made him sit on his knees. Junior stared at him and Cristiano thought that all the good that Junior had inherited from James.

"Do you really like James?"

"Of course I like him!"

"Do you like him better than Georgina?"

"Yes" Junior answered. "Is she still your girlfriend?"

"Things are difficult. We haven't talk" Cristiano argued. "What if I suddenly told you that James could be my boyfriend? How's that?"

"Your boyfriend?"

"Yes, just like Paula's parents, right? She has an alpha dad and an omega dad."

Junior thought for a moment.

"Paula's dads are boyfriends and are her dads at the same time"

"Yes, exactly," murmured Cristiano.

"So... if you and James are dating, does that mean you two are going to be my parents?"

Cristiano's heart beats hard against his chest and he feels a bit confused. He wishes James were here, only to see how Junior is the smartest kid in the world and can notice everything.

"Would you like James to be your dad?"

"I'd like to," answers Junior. "While my mom is away"

"Oh, Cris" Cristiano took him in his arms, cooing sweetly. He welcomed Junior's brown head on his chest until he could hear the boom boom of his heart. He didn't let go of him for seconds and didn't feel like letting him go, but Junior stirred with curiosity and Cristiano kissed him in the hair, with his eyes closed.

"You know what, I think it's a good idea. A great idea, perfect. Let's pack a small suitcase and let's go to the hostel, Grandma can take care of pets, the faster the better, let's leave early in the morning, what do you think?"

"OK!"

"Then let's go to your room and keep a pair of T-shirts and pants and socks, I'm going to call Grandma to stay at home over the weekend."

"Dad"

"Yes?"

Junior stood up, Cristiano imitated him.

"Is James that omega footballer you met a long time ago?"

Cristiano feels unable to lie.

"Yeah, Cris, he is"

-

James had not slept at all. It was nine in the morning and he had no hope of closing his eyes any longer. There was no sign of sun through the windows and the dark sky outside only made him want to sink into bed and not get up in the whole day. If it had not been for the ringing bell that he heard, still half stunned from the lack of sleep, he probably would have stay in bed. When he got up, his head spun. He grabbed a jacket that was on the bedspread and put it on, opened the door and shuffled out. The awakening brought back the memories of Georgina, Junior, Cristiano. He felt he was going to collapse. The main door of the hostel opened with reluctance and he wouldn't have crossed the path of stones if it were not for the man standing outside the fence.

At first he didn't believe it and frowned. It had been so long. Years had run without being able to see him in the face, without talking to him, following his career only on the Internet and television. James opened his mouth a little. He advanced with long steps and blinked repeatedly when he was in front of him. The alpha outside was looking at him with a smile, with the same tender eyes that he remembered.

"Arturo?" James mused.

"Hey, James"

James' hands trembled. He dropped the keys trying to open the gate and got a soft laugh from Arturo Vidal. He apologized for his clumsiness and opened as fast as he could. For a few moments, after nothing dividing them, they stared at each other without doing anything, without speaking. Arturo seemed more mature, more experienced, he seemed to have lived longer than he himself, but the change to James didn't matter. He licked his lips and finally woke up. He gave Arturo a tight hug, inhaling his scent until his nose ached. Arturo's smell remained the same. Territorial, dominant, alpha. Arturo kissed his cheek and separated him carefully. He looked at him with regret and James felt a little miserable.

"How did you find me?" It was the only thing James could pronounce. "How do you still remember me?"

"Well, now you're not exactly unknown to the world of football" James rubbed his hand over his face, it was obvious.

"Jesus, Arturo"

James sought refuge again in Arturo's arms. He was sore, scared, happy to see him again, angry, he just couldn't understand himself. Arturo stopped him but slowly pulled him away again, holding his face with his hands.

"How did this happen?" Arturo asked. "Sorry, we lost contact so many years ago and when I come back to hear from you, it's because you're dating Cristiano Ronaldo"

"It's more complicated than that," James said quietly. "So long, Christ, I knew that you are such a star in Germany and that you get married, that you have children"

"I'm single a couple of months ago"

"Oh, I'm so sorry..."

"I'm better" responded Arturo. "But when I heard your name I couldn't believe it was you, then I saw you in the pictures, you have not changed anything, except the color of the hair"

It was James' turn to laugh.

"Your hair is different too"

"We all change a bit, don't we?"

James nodded.

"I thought you needed to talk to someone, a support" Arturo spoke. "I was sure you were alone here in Madrid"

"I am." James nodded. "Well, not really alone... it's a bit difficult to explain"

"You can explain it to me in. May I come in?"

"Yes, of course, sorry, no... I have not slept well, this is all a chaos"

Arturo stayed at the entrance to the gate.

"You can count on me now"

James could not do more than hug him again. Tight and soft at the same time, like when they were younger. He allowed himself to feel his scent again and reassure himself with the essence of someone he knew, someone he trusted. Arturo put his hands on his back and James sighed. They separated and then Arturo entered, James closed the gate and they headed towards the hostel.

Cristiano didn't get off the car. He did not feel able or wanted to interrupt. He waited until James and the other man he knew well entered the hostel to answer Junior's questions.

"Who is that man with James? We are not going to get off?"

"No," he said, unable to take his eyes off the place where James lived. "Remember I told you we could get in the way?"

Junior was silent.

"Well, we're getting in the way now"

Cristiano took a u-turn and went back home. Junior stared into the mirror, too confused to even question anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys I'm so sorry again! I just had a little more time so i immediately thought about keep writing this story <3
> 
> Georgina knows! She realizeed why James is here! But will she tell someone? 
> 
> A new character is here. Arturo Vidal. I really like this friendship that Arturo and James have in Bayern and I see them more like a bromance but who knows here, Cristiano can't believe James is with another alpha. Poor Cris, he was so excited with the idea of spend the weekend with his son and James, and poor Junior too, he can't really understand. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments, kudos and visits!


	12. Null and void

"You have no idea of everything I've gone through to get here. It took me six years to have enough strength to try to do something, to realize that my life had no meaning without him by my side. You know what? When Junior was born, I didn't feel anything. Neither happiness, nor sadness because I knew that the next day Dolores would come and take him away from me, nothing at all. Even when during the nine months I was used to having him inside and I even imagined the things I was going to do with my baby. It took a couple of days for me to understand. Suddenly I would go out and see a bunch of omegas with their children in their arms. Once I couldn't get to the training and I sat crying in the street, right there. I realized how terrible I had been, how horrible it was to have sold my son. I felt that I wouldn't be able to live with myself anymore. So I didn't spend any of the money that Cristiano gave me, nothing. It made me sick. But I was very afraid that my mom would find out and with her the whole world. So I kept quiet and when I felt I couldn't do it anymore, I told Daniela. She supported me, she advised me. We plan this trip to Madrid for years. And you know what's best? That I found Junior, that Junior loves me and that Cristiano loves me too. I don't care what the whole world and television and Georgina believe, I don't care. I hope she says it! I hope she tells the whole truth and so the journalists come to ask me. Then I would answer: yes, it's true. I am the mother of Cristiano Ronaldo Junior"

Arturo looked at him in a way that gave James some clues. A tremendous admiration, he imagined, for having lived all the time with guilt eating his body. Hard judgment, because agreeing to deliver a child in exchange for money is the most cruel action one could imagine. But James needed to feel his gaze, somehow, because he felt he deserved it and that after so long, it was only fair that Arturo saw it that way. Telling the truth to someone after everything that had happened there in Madrid was healing and comforting, although Arturo was judging him that way.

James smiled, looking at himself in the reflection of the mirror hanging on one of the walls of the room. He turned around and made the same face at Arturo who was sitting on the bed. He didn't remember ever feeling so safe in life.

"I'm going to tell Cristiano to do it. That we tell the whole world the truth. I cannot risk Georgina telling it first. I'm so anxious about what Junior will think. Will he be happy that I am his dad? His mom, actually. He has had a dad all his life. The best dad he could have had"

"I bet he's going to be happy. The TV shows were talking all the time about how much Junior loved you."

James nodded happily, sitting down beside him.

"I don't know how long I can wait. I'll talk him at night, maybe? Maybe Cristiano is in his training. I don't want to interrupt. Do you think the night is an appropriate time?"

"I think there are a couple of things that need explanation." James raised his eyebrows and leaned toward him, eyes wide. "Hey, your freckles" Arturo had to mention. "They are as beautiful as before"

"Okay, what things?" James asked, just so Arturo wouldn't notice his rosy cheeks.

"You got pregnant with your son when you weren't in heat." James straightened a bit and Arturo looked from his nose to his mouth.

"Yes," he whispered slowly. "I know. I wasn't even close to having my heat. I slept with Cristiano thinking that nothing was going to happen. Imagine, weeks later I started to feel nauseous, to feel bad. After I had the test, it was all so strange. I felt that everyone could realize"

"Well, alphas can notice when an omega is pregnant"

"Fortunately, there was no alpha in my house. I was locked up almost the nine months, my mom went to the club to warn that I couldn't play anymore "

"Do you know what people say when an omega gets pregnant from an alpha without being in heat?"

James straightens his shoulders, blinking softly. Arturo's face is on him and so James can see his dark and long lashes. Arturo's words make him frown. That is almost a half-cheesy chatter from the townspeople, an absurd and unclear belief in the relationship between an alpha and an omega. He just can laugh, then makes a small snort. He shakes his head, but Arturo's eyes never leave his face.

"You know it?"

"Yeah, I do, but that's just nonsense..."

"Omegas get pregnant without being in heat when the alpha they sleep with is the right one"

"Arturo, please..."

"If you are soulmates, no matter heats or ruts, your body will know and will do whatever it takes for you two to be united forever"

"I didn't think you were that kind of alpha that believes in those things. I didn't think that alphas believed in those things, in fact"

"I realized that there is some truth in that when with Maria Teresa we couldn't have children without her being in heat. And you know how easy it is for female omegas to get pregnant, but she simply couldn't. Before I knew that Alonso was on the way, I was afraid I could never have kids"

"That doesn't happen to any alpha," James muttered. "All alphas can have children. And if you couldn't have children with her, you could have had them with another omega. But you were in love, right? You two tried everything "

"I was" Arturo smiled softly. "But I had not been able to forget about the pretty face of an omega that I knew there in Colombia"

James doesn't know if Arturo is serious and doesn't want to believe he is serious. He laughs, only to control the stuttering that comes to him when he tries to open his mouth and answer something witty. Arturo always smells good and is always sweet, he is nice and he loves him well. But he is not Cristiano.

"Arturo..."

"I'm happy that Junior loves you, that Cristiano accepts that you get close to him. But I'm a little jealous, I admit""

"Jealous why?"

"Because Cristiano seems to be more than the father of your son"

James shakes his head.

"I'm only here for my son"

"Letting everyone know that you are Junior's mom will make people think of you and Cristiano together, as a couple"

"I know"

"And that bothers you?"

He cannot say no and Arturo knows it.

"I was thinking we could eat something. Do you mind if I'm going to buy pizza and eat here?" Proposes Arturo. In the end, James closes his eyes.

"Thanks" he starts to say. "But I'd like to be alone for a while. Thanks, thanks for coming. I'd like to call Cristiano and see Junior. I can always count on you, right?"

Arturo smiles and James knows he's not really upset. That Arturo is a friend and that no matter how things happen, he is going to stay. Arturo nods, approaches him and kisses him on the cheek. James opens his eyes only when Arturo moves away and the two of them share a look that says more than a thousand words.

-

"Hey, Cris" James dares to call Cristiano with a diminutive tender, reclining on his bed. It's dark outside and James has just finished counting the coins he could get playing on the street. It's not much, he thinks he needs a better job fast. The voice of Cristiano, however, doesn't sound anything like it was ringing during all the days that they were speaking by cell phone. Cristiano looked rough, angry and sharp and James was afraid he had bothered calling him when he was busy. "Are you busy? I can call later"

"What do you want?" Cristiano doesn't seem to have any intention of talking to him and James can realize that. There is nothing about the sweet voice, about the soft words or the cloying tone that the alpha had been using with him before.

"I wanted to talk to Junior and know how you were doing" James answers, surprised.

"We are fine"

"Can I talk to Junior?"

Cristiano stays a couple of seconds in silence.

"He doesn't want to talk to you"

"What?" James sits up in his bed, staring at the television in front of him with a frown. "Why?"

"Look, James, I'm busy. I'll call you back, okay? "

"Cristiano, what's going on?" James hesitates because he's not sure he wants to hear his words. "Why Junior doesn't want to talk to me? Is he sick?"

"I guess you should know, unless you're too busy to realize that Junior wants to be with you." Cristiano bit the words.

"What are you talking about?" James articulated, then immediately refuted vigorously. "I always want to be with my son and I know that Cris also wants to be with me all the time. What do you want to come up with?"

"To that Cris is disillusioned of you, that's it"

"What do you mean by that? Did you tell him the truth? Junior already knows?"

"What? No. I won't tell him anything, much less now. Cris doens't want to see you anymore. Me neither"

Between the ideas and the bad thoughts that ate at his head, James couldn't imagine the reason for the unexpected withdrawal of Cristiano and Junior. He moved back and forth on the bed, anxious and annoyed. He spoke to Cristiano, his throat half dry.

"What has happened? What did I do wrong?"

"Do you want to know what you did wrong? We were going to your house today, it was his idea. I was happy to see you, we wanted to spend the weekend with you, but, do you know what happened? Outside the hostel there was another alpha and you were in his arms and Cris saw the two of you. I asked him yesterday what he thought if you and I were boyfriends; but Cris knows that you already chose someone else; I don't think it's right that you continue to see Cristiano "

"What?" James tries to process Cristiano's words as fast as he can. Junior, Arturo, Ronaldo, they're all suddenly in his head. His breathing becomes more agitated and his cheeks redder. If Cristiano doesn't allow him to see Junior, he doesn't know what he would be capable of. "God, did you see Arturo? Cristiano, did you see us, Arturo and me? I've known him for so long, for God's sake, you cannot think that between him and me..."

"I don't want your explanations, I don't fucking care about your explanations. Do you remember what you promised me that day, when I allowed you to be Cris's friend? "

James is silent next to the phone.

"That you wouldn't break his heart. You just did it"

"You can't forbid me to see my son," James babbles. "Let me talk to him, let me explain. For God, Cristiano, Arturo only came here because now everyone knows what is between you and me and he wanted to extend a hand, that's all. Trust me, there's nothing more. Besides, Georgina..."

"I don't care what's happening with Georgina. I haven't even seen her. Don't try, please, to call or try to see Junior. We need a time away from you. I can't believe you did this to us"

"Cristiano, please. I haven't done anything, let me talk to him, let me explain that... "

Cristiano cut the call.

James threw the phone near his feet and clenched his fists so hard that he buried his nails in the palms of his hands. He looked around his room, covered his face with his arms, screamed loudly, and scratched his throat. He didn't cry, however, and after a while he stared at the ceiling. If the only reason he was in Madrid didn't want to hear from him again, James felt he was going to fall apart completely. He blamed Arturo, he blamed Cristiano, but he thought he couldn't stay calm because Junior didn't want to hear from him and Georgina knows the secret. And James is ready for everything, except to return to Colombia without Junior from his hand.

\- 

"Once upon a time, before you came, I spent my time playing football without worrying about much more, until I was a zombie. But then you came flying to this house, tiny and pink. And I took you in my arms and I said, Hello Cristiano"

"Telling him the same story again?" Katia asked in a very short voice. Cristiano nodded but didn't stop stroking the hair of Junior who was asleep. He spent the afternoon near his son like that, with his fingers in his wavy brown hair. Cristiano left him a kiss on the cheek and sat on the bed.

"He has become sad. Telling him how he came to me always makes him feel better"

"Cris, can we talk?" Katia looked at him with narrowed eyes. "All this is so confusing"

When they crossed to a sofa in the garden, Cristiano wasn't afraid of the questions Katia could ask him. If Katia had discovered it before everyone said it on television, he would probably have been nervous about telling her the things he did to have Junior. Katia wasn't stupid and Cristiano knew that she was aware that Junior was born from some omega out there.

She probably wanted to know about James. Everyone wanted to know about James. Cristiano was enraged, jealous and undone because James had not betrayed him alone, he had betrayed Junior, he had made him cry, he had made him sleep in bed with wet and salty cheeks. James could have given birth to Junior but he didn't have a right over him. And if James wanted to be with Junior and with him as much as he said, he wouldn't have let anyone see him at Arturo's side. All Cristiano could think was how James had taken charge of destroying all the little they had.

"I had not wanted to bother you with what everyone talks about, about that boy"

"Don't worry, Katia. Everyone knows it but it's over"

"Are you dating that omega?"

"No"

"Were you two dating"

"No, not even"

"So journalists are lying?"

Cristiano ran his hands over his face.

"I have to tell you something"

Katia leaned forward, looking at Cristiano with pursed lips.

"It's something bad? Your face doesn't look good at all"

"It's about James. About Junior, too. About us three"

"I was wondering where you met that boy, because they say it was while he was making some money in the streets, that Cris suddenly approached him, that you then appeared but they never say why, they never give a reason"

"I knew James before" Cristiano looks up. "Do you remember that day when I went with the national team to play in Colombia? The friendly match there in Medellín?"

Katia blinks softly but doesn't dare to nod, suddenly too aware of his words.

"We went to a bar to celebrate the victory and there was a boy, an omega with a pretty face that I had already seen in the place they told us to train. He played football, he had freckles on the cheeks and the nose, he was called James" Cristiano's voice was lower and hoarse, as if he was holding back the desire to start crying. "I tried to talk to him, he ignored me, I said: I want to kiss you and it happened, in the end we slept in a small hotel in the city" Cristiano paused, to breathe deeply. "I swear, Katia, I've never regretted that. Never. Because of that night, Junior was born"

"What is he doing here now?" Katia spoke with a dry throat and clenched teeth.

"He wants to recover Cristiano"

"You're not going to give him to that omega, my God, Cristiano, answer me. Does Mom know about this? "

"She knows"

"Are you going to give Junior to him? Are you going to let him keep watching him? James left Cris as soon as he was born! How would he have the dignity to come here and claim his custody? "

"Katia, I'm not going to tell you more. Not for now, just trust me, please. I agreed that James see Junior because he is so excited for him, he doesn't know the truth. But I won't do it anymore because James is with another alpha and I won't stand for him to let Cris go through this"

"What?" Spat Katia. "With whom?"

"Look at the internet, everyone should be talking about that"

Katia looked down at the grass. Cristiano had his eyes fixed somewhere farther from the house and when she saw his face, he seemed to be in a different state. She put her hand on his shoulder, stroked him there slowly and then pulled him to her chest, which was always warm and had all the love for him. Katia could hear him complaining softly, with soft whimpers and kissed his hair, until Cristiano sighed deeply.

"Did you love him?" Katia asked.

Cristiano sniffed his snot.

"I love him"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Guys on december I will update every week! 
> 
> Arturo said the reason why James got pregnant even when he wasn't in heat but James can't believe that.
> 
> James is terrorified that Cristiano won't let him see Junior anymore and he will do something about it!
> 
> Katia knows (but not all the truth)! And Cristiano finally admitted it, he loves James.
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, visits and comments!


	13. Far from never

"Let me explain to him" James' voice through the cell phone was somewhere between supplication and demand and Cristiano told himself that James was becoming greedy, arrogant and brazen and that was more than he could tolerate. "Let me explain to Junior or I'll talk. The promise I made to you, I'm going to break it and I'm not going to feel any remorse for that. You know I can do it and you also know I'm serious. I could call any TV program, contact any website and tell what you don't want to be known. I could say that you and I met before and that I came back for my son and everyone would be on you"

"Who would believe you? It's your word against mine, "answered Cristiano, biting the words.

"They can find out and would arrive at the same answer because everything happened for real. Your team traveled to Colombia, they trained in Medellín and I was there that time. There's no way you can deny it, Cristiano"

"Do you know what that would cause in Cris? Do you know the harm you would do to him?"

"It wouldn't hurt him, because he's going to be happy to have another dad and to know that that other dad is me." James was silent for a few seconds. "Forgive me, Cristiano, but if you don't allow me to see Junior, I am capable of everything"

"You should tell them the whole truth," Cristiano added. "You should tell them that you received money in exchange for giving me my son"

"Yes, I would" James' voice sounds hoarse. "I would. And I'd say the same way that I gave it back to you, would you be able to deny that?"

Cristiano does not feel capable of giving him any scathing response. He hears James sigh on the phone.

"I don't know if we are going to have another moment to speak like this, calm, without reproaching us for anything. So I'll tell you this now"

"What do you mean?" Cristiano asks with a frown.

"I just want you to know that Georgina is aware that Cris is my son and that I am here for him. I asked her to keep quiet, but I don't think she will keep it. Anyway, I don't care anymore. I hope she tells it, I would feel much more relieved"

"James, are you serious?"

"I've never lied to you" Cristiano couldn't refute that. "I'm not going to start lying to you right now"

Cristiano looks to the front, where the portrait he has with Junior hangs. It occurs to him that everything is so strange, the way in which things are discovered and how collapses everything he could ever build is so bizarre and he feels so tied in his hands to try to stop it. If he could make a wish right now, Cristiano would beg to return the time back, just to that day when Dolores traveled to Medellín and brought Cris to him. No way would he erase the night in the hotel or the kiss in the bar, but he would make things better and he would let himself be carried away by James' eyes and what they produce in his chest and he would propose to him, at least, "let's raise our son together" or "let's give ourselves a chance".

If he had done that, he wouldn't have to be afraid now.

"She won't talk" opts to say Ronaldo finally. "I know Georgina. She wouldn't support the idea of people talking about our relationship and about how I preferred a male omega to carry my son"

"I really want her to tell everyone. There's nothing else I want more than being Junior's dad"

"Would you like Cris to find out the truth on TV? Or by one of his schoolmates the next day so that everyone else laughs at him?"

Cristiano knows he hit the target.

"But that's the only way I have left now to try to get into his life" James surprises him. Cristiano waits a couple of seconds.

"If only you had waited, if there were nothing between you and him..."

"Why are you so jealous of Arturo?" James finally decided to chide. "All these months, since we met again, you have been with Georgina at the same time you try to have something between us. And have I reproached you? No. I kept quiet. Because I want you and Junior to be okay and I know it's difficult for other people to understand so I didn't interpose between you and her, but you just saw that Arturo and I met, that we hugged each other, because we are two friends and you make a scandal. That is so unfair, Cristiano. I have had to endure every appearance of yours with Georgina, every kiss, every hug and everything in silence"

"You don't care" Cristiano sounds mordacious "You don't care about that. If I am with Georgina or with any other person, that is not worth anything to you. You are looking for Junior, not me"

Cristiano is anxious for the silence that suddenly stands between them.

"At the beginning, yes. At first I came here looking for Junior and I was willing to screw your life as long as you gave him back to me. Because I didn't know you, because I had an image of you that only told me that you were the alpha that left me alone in a hotel after sleeping with me. And I hated you for that" If Cristiano had been able at that time to be a little more empathetic, truer and more real, he would have been sad to leave James after breed him. "I hated you for a long time, but then I saw how you behaved with Cris, I saw what a good father you were, I read what everyone said about you and I got a different idea. And now, we've spent months going back and forth, I discovered it for myself. I still want to have my son back, Cristiano, I will always want that. But now I don't want that to be all I get, I want you and I to behave like the family we are"

Cristiano is looking at nothing in particular. There are two options to follow and James' words do not make it any easier to decide. If he wanted to, he could close his eyes and forget everything; let go of Georgina and Arturo, concentrate on everything he feels when he hears James' voice and whisper that he is right, that all these situations are unnecessary complications and that tonight he needs him so much, that Junior needs so much to have him by his side. A part of Cristiano wants it. That part of Cristiano means enough to everything and needs to leave in front of all the people holding Junior's and James' hands. That part of Cristiano is not interested in anything other than love.

But there is the other option that slips between his thoughts when he closes his eyes and puts his head on the pillow. James is not sincere. Actually, he has never met James too well so any bet is dangerous. James could be everything his mom imagined. He could be a thief, he might want fame or he could get tired of Junior and leave him again. And the relationship with Arturo, could be for real. In the end, what is the constant from James that he has in life?

Cristiano feels that he would like to know James enough to trust him even more than he has already done, but he finds himself too distrustful and proud to give in.

"I'm sorry," he whispers then, very slowly. "This is stronger than me"

-

Georgina crossed the corridor to the kitchen, where Dolores was waiting for her with a glass of black soda. Katia was also sitting near the older woman, while holding her hand tight and both interlaced the fingers. It seemed to her that there was a kind of barrier between herself and Cristiano's women, the way Katia looked away the moment she entered the room. Dolores, however, murmured a soft "sit, my dear" and Georgina obeyed, with her hair over her eyes. She had not been sleeping well in days, her head full of questions and ideas about what was the right thing to do, what she should do. 

"How has the work been?" Georgina heard Dolores mutter. Cristiano's house suddenly seemed cold and alone.

"Fine, thank you," she replies. "The phone has not stopped ringing" she dares to mention later, so that Cristiano's mother and sister know that work is not the reason why they continue to dial her number.

Georgina waits for the things they have to tell her and is not surprised to hear Katia's voice first.

"We don't really know how to start talking about this," says Katia. "Believe me when I tell you that we have thought a lot about the right words"

"It is not necessary to take too many detours" replies Georgina. "Thanks for trying to be nice and gentle, but I know what is happening. Cristiano didn't tell me, "she adds immediately. "James told me."

Dolores sighs deeply.

"We know" the older woman is looking at her hands on the table. "Cristiano told us. Georgina, you don't know how complicated this has been for him and for us. Katia didn't know until recently"

"Did you know?" Asks Georgina.

"Yes" answers Dolores. "I went to look for Junior in Medellin the day after his birth and I told James the conditions under which we were going to take our child"

"Why did you hide Junior for so long that James is his dad?" Georgina couldn't be indolent in the middle of all the things that were happening right then and there. Cristiano was probably going to leave her to start a family with James and his son, but she was able to empathize with Junior because for a long time, she tried to take the place of the mother that Junior had never had.

"He doesn't know yet," said Katia. "I didn't know it either. Cristiano told us recently, he is very hurt with James. Have you heard what everyone is talking about? About Arturo Vidal"

"Yes, I saw something about it" Georgina swallowed. "I went to talk to James a few days ago because I needed an explanation for everything that was happening. Cristiano didn't talk to me, and suddenly I found out from the press that he had a new relationship so I wanted to clear things up with James. I had only seen him once before, that night he stayed for dinner with us. Now I understand why Junior seemed so delighted with him"

"It's a shame, James has started something with that other alpha without even mentioning it to Cristiano," Katia mused. "But it's so sad, too, that Cristiano began to imagine a future with James and Junior, without even talking to you first, Georgina. Cristiano was wrong because he let himself be carried away by his feelings. He is an alpha and although he tries to deny it, he will always be prey to his memories and the sensations that awake him to rediscover himself with the omega that gave him a son"

"James is more important to Cristiano because he gave birth to Junior" Georgina has a bit dry lips.

"Yes" says Dolores. "You have to understand, Georgina, Cristiano thought he could forget James but he couldn't"

"It would be different if Cristiano only thought of James as the mother of his son and as the omega who has the right to visit Junior and to know him..."

"That's what James said he wanted to do. He told me that Cristiano loved me"

"Cristiano loves you" Katia continues. "But he's in love with James. And I'm so sorry for that"

Georgina blinked many times.

"I'm sorry he wasn't able to tell you to your face and that he made you go through all this. Sometimes Cristiano is immature and is deluded when it comes to feelings. He wants to believe that he is a gallant but the truth is that he doesn't know how to proceed when things get difficult. Georgina, he only wants what is best for his son"

"He could have told me," Georgina said very quietly. "He could have told me and I would have understood. I swear I would have understood "

"That's why we're talking to you now," snapped Dolores. "I just want you to promise us that you won't publicize this, that you won't tell anyone about James' fatherhood. Cristiano will choose the moment; he will talk first with Junior and then he will decide if it is the best thing that everyone knows that James is the omega that gave birth to him. I ask you, Georgina, out of respect for Junior. Don't do it for Cristiano, do it for Cristianinho"

Silence is the only thing that comes out of Georgina's mouth.

"Be assured that Cristiano won't be with James. He is still very hurt by whatever James has with Arturo Vidal and he is too proud to take a back seat. If he decides that Junior knows that James is his mother, he will only do it to make him happy" Dolores completed.

"I'm so sorry that this had to happen like this and that it had to happen to you" Katia smiled at her. "You're a good girl, Georgina, Cristiano is just an alpha"

When Georgina looks up, Dolores and Katia are staring at her. There is suddenly a whirlwind of emotions all over her body and constant thoughts in her head and all she can imagine clearly is Cristiano and Georgina feels that she is going to fade when she mutters "it's okay, I'll wait. I'm going to keep the secret" because saying that is accepting that she has lost Cristiano Ronaldo, probably forever.

-

"What are you taking? Suppressors?" Arturo asked, leaning back on the bed and looking at the white bottle of pills that James had just put in his black bag.

"Mmh" replied James. He grabbed a glass of water and swallowed hard. "I don't have many left, I didn't think all this was going to take so long"

"Stop taking them simply" Arturo proposed and James narrowed his eyes. "Do you have the money to buy others?"

"I have some savings" James was lying.

"I can pay them for you"

"I don't want to bother you anymore. Look, you brought me food, you stay here, you gave me your support. You are giving me too much"

"And I'm happy to give it to you"

James smiles, softly.

"Thank you for coming. If you weren't here, I'd be crying in the bed. I can't believe Cristiano told me those things"

"It's okay, I just want to make you happy" Arturo smiled. "Hey, do you remember when we went out with the guys to the discos in the city, when I came to live in Colombia?"

"Of course I remember!" James shows him his teeth. "You danced and you kissed with all the omegas of the place"

"Liar. Not with everyone" Arturo stood up. James watched him approach him and they were face to face soon. Arturo and him share the same height but Arturo was always more overwhelming, always learned to occupy more space. James believes that he can do all that because he is an alpha and that he, as an omega, will never get used to imposing himself or becoming big.

"With the majority, at least," James whispers, quietly.

"You're right. There was always an omega that I couldn't kiss, even though I invited him to dance infinitely times"

James can feel Arturo's breath above his mouth and it's warm and sweet and he cannot help but look at this alpha's lips and his heart pound hard on his chest.

"Who was he?" James dares to ask and Arturo lets out a catlike smile.

"Do you think that if I try now I can kiss him? He is standing very close to me"

Everything seems suddenly too small and suffocating but James cannot refuse anything. He is angry and anxious and eager, he has all the feelings of the world trapped in his little room and the only alpha that is there is Arturo. And Arturo has never denied anything to him.

"I think you should try"

Arturo kisses him and James closes his eyes, just letting himself go. Inside his head there is not too much because the smell of Arturo and Arturo's mouth is occupying any other thought that could appear. For the first time since arriving in Spain, James is thinking about himself and how much he missed someone making him feel loved in this way. When they separate, Arturo is smiling and doesn't stop to observe him in the eyes and James smiles at him too, with hot lips. Arturo leans in to kiss him again and then James realizes something. There is an alpha standing there and kissing him right now, but that alpha is not Cristiano.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys I'm sooo sorry for the delay. i know I said I was going to update every week in december but I got Influenza! I hadn't felt good enough to write until now! Sorry!!
> 
> Cristiano is still very jealous even when James tried to explain everything to him. 
> 
> Katia and Dolores talked to Georgina and she promised not to tell anyone about the secret! 
> 
> Arturo and James kissed! But James can't enjoy that, because he just needs one alpha and that alpha is not Arturo.
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and visits!!


	14. What has to happen

Junior looked between his classmates. Dolores wasn't around and the doorman didn't allow him to leave the entrance until his grandmother or his dad showed up around there. In his solitude, Junior decided to sit on the bench that was on one side, swinging the legs back and forth. He had missed school for a couple of days, waiting for all the rumors about his father and Georgina and James to fade away little by little, but Cristiano decided later that they couldn't continue living like this and told him to return to the school and ignore anything that his classmates could tell. Nobody had been disrespectful and nobody asked anything, but Junior couldn't get out of his mind the constant thought that he could have made James a member of his family and that didn't happen.

He had wanted to ask everything at every moment, but Cristiano didn't want to tell him anything. Cristiano curved his head, looked away and then asked him to leave him alone in his room and Junior shrugged because Cristiano never begged him to leave the room that was really theirs. He then asked his grandma, just to be sure that things weren't so bad, but Dolores smiled at him and whispered that there was nothing to worry about. Junior couldn't believe her, anyway.

The grass around the entrance fence was his focus of attention until Cristiano's voice reached his ears. He had to look up and face him as he did every day. He didn't blink, they both stared at each other. Cristiano waved him and then Junior stood up, said goodbye to the doorman and walked with his father to the car parked on the corner. He opened the door, Cristiano put him in the chair, started the car and began a conversation.

"How was school today?"

Junior looked out the window.

"I have to do a math homework"

"Okay, I can help you" answered Cristiano. "How about we go for an ice cream and then we go home and do homework?"

"James hasn't called you?"

"Cris, we already talked about this" Junior couldn't understand why Cristiano sounded so stifled.

"Let's talk again," he replied. "You promised that we'd always see each other and I haven't seen him for two weeks"

"James is busy"

"Doing what?"

"I dont know"

"You said that you and he were going to be boyfriends and that he would be my dad and TV said it: you are boyfriends. Why can't I see him then?" Junior's lips pursed in a simple pout. "I want to see him, dad"

"Cristiano" Ronaldo was staring straight ahead. "Do you remember that day when we went to James' house? Yeah? We both saw that he was with another alpha. James isn't interested in us that way, that's all"

Junior frowned, blinking many times. His little hands tightened the belt of his chair in the backseat and moved his little feet, hitting the shoes on the edge of the chair.

"That's a lie," he argued immediately. "James said we were friends and he wasn't lying. I know it"

"Yeah, you both are probably friends, but nothing more. James isn't going to be my boyfriend and he won't be your dad"

"I wish he was." Junior throws a tantrum. "I wish he was and we could live together"

"Well, that's not going to happen"

"Why not? "Junior's voice was complaining and sharp.

"Okay, Cris" Cristiano stopped at a red light. "Do you want to be James' friend? I don't think that's the best. But even if you and him were friends, that doesn't mean that he and I are going to have a relationship because he decided to be with another alpha. And you know what? I don't want you to be friends with someone like that"

"I don't care. I miss his smell and I want him to hold me"

"I can hold you as many times as you want"

"No" Junior seemed about to cry. "You aren't like him. I love him"

"How can you love someone you've barely met?" Although Ronaldo's question was sincere and logical, Junior didn't seem to take any weight. "It's enough, I don't want to talk about this anymore"

"I do," Junior said miserably.

"Cris, enough"

"I don't care if he's with another alpha. Maybe you do care, but not me" Cristiano could see in the rearview mirror the tears that Junior tried not to spill and the deep sob that he wanted to drown. "I love him and I forgive him"

Junior wiped his face with his hands, sniffing his snot. The car didn't stop and Cristiano didn't say a word. The two fell into a deep silence that was sometimes broken by Junior's sighs and the radio that sounded very slowly now. Cristiano drove for a long time, but Junior wasn't aware of that. All he could think and believe was that his dad had become the one who was causing him a horrible pain. Cristiano had always been his hero and had never denied him anything (except that) but now he was refusing to see James again and Junior needed to see him urgently. He needed to feel his smell and sleep on his belly. His scent had haunted him from the moment they met outside the Santiago Bernabeu and he had wanted to sniff it all the time. Junior couldn't believe that Cristiano was capable of doing something like that.

In a moment, the radio stopped. Cristiano parked the car and turned around to look at him. Junior hadn't separated his face from his wet hands. As soon as his father whispered "Cris", Junior raised his head very slowly and removed his hands very gently. He didn't look around, even when Cristiano's eyes invited him to do so. Outside, there were noises of cars and footsteps and Junior noticed that they weren't at home. He looked away, frowned. To his right was the fence that belonged to James' hostel. Immediately afterwards he stared at Cristiano as if he couldn't find an adequate answer.

"What are we doing here?" Junior let out, though his throat felt tight.

Cristiano remained silent for seconds, which for Junior were like hours.

"Cris, I want you to know something," Ronaldo began. "I'm your dad and nothing will ever change that. I raised you, I decided to stay with you because I love you. Grandma, your aunts, your uncle, your cousins, they all love you very much. Actually, you don't need anyone else. Your family is us, do you understand that? "

"But James..." Junior interrupted, but Cristiano silenced him instantly.

"I know. There's something about James, isn't it? His smell, the way he treats you, you like him, don't you? You feel attached to him in some strange way"

"That's because we're friends"

"Cristiano" Ronaldo's tone of voice, Junior couldn't understand it. "You're still small but you're very smart, I know that you've asked the real why"

Junior was silent and Cristiano breathed with his mouth open.

"We're going in, is that okay? We're going to go to James' house and you'll see him. I do this for you because I love you, Cris, because you mean the world to me and I want to see you always happy"

"Dad…"

"I don't know what's going to happen there, I don't know who else is going to be there besides James"

"What if that alpha is there?" Junior asked with his voice in whispers.

"Would you mind that?"

"No. But I'd rather be with James alone. Only you, him and me"

"Like a family" Cristiano spoke under his breath.

"Yes, as a family"

"But we are not"

"We could be"

Junior saw his dad closing the eyes.

"What has to happen will happen. Please, I don't want to see you cry, Cris. If this doesn't happen the way you want, please don't be disappointed. I couldn't bear to see you sad"

"I'm sad now," Junior whispered. "And you're looking at me"

Cristiano laughed, for nerves, fear and the cunning of his son.

"You're amazing" he said. "I'll tell you what we're going to do. I'm going to call James and I'll ask him if he's home and if we can get in. I'll tell him I'm with you" Ronaldo waited a while to finally mumble. "Maybe he's not alone, you know"

"I know"

"Don't be sad, okay?"

"Call him, please. Will I wait forever?"

Junior saw his father's hands tremble and he parted his lips, breathing through his congested nose. He closed his eyes very hard when at last Cristiano was able to contact James.

-

James knew that no explanation was going to be correct or credible to Cristiano. There wasn't a way in which Cristiano didn't imagine that what him and and Arturo had was something truly intimate. Arturo was sitting on his bed and had risen to his feet the moment he saw Cristiano and Junior cross the threshold of the room. Cristiano had put Junior behind his back, preventing Junior from running into his arms or that he could approach the boy to hug him. James could feel the room much smaller and suffocating, flooded by the thick and powerful smell of two alphas that were competing in person for a territory and an omega. Arturo and Cristiano were looking at each other without blinking, standing facing each other. James' heart was hit in the chest and his mouth was dry. He licked his lips quickly and approached them, trying to come between.

"He just came to visit me, it's all" James felt he had to excuse himself. "If you prefer only the three of us here..." he hoped that the tone of his voice could show Cristiano that he was going to do what he wanted.

"Cristiano isn't your alpha, James" Arturo opened his mouth. "He has no rights over you"

"Arturo, please," whispered James.

"No, I'm not his alpha." Cristiano tightened his jaw. "But you know that's superfluous." James could feel Arturo lifting his chin, trying to look threatening to Cristiano. "Whoever claims him now won't be able to change the past"

"But whoever claims him will have a future with him"

"Please, this is about Junior." James put a hand on Cristiano's chest, making him step back. He immediately turned to watch Arturo, who never stopped seeing Ronaldo. "Arturo, you know I've been waiting for this moment for weeks. You're my friend and I know you want to see me happy and you also know how happy I would be if Cristiano allowed me to talk to Junior" James knew there was a possibility: Arturo could mention that they both kissed and then Cristiano would take care to make disappear forever the idea of meeting between him and his son. The only thing that James could do was to ask Arturo just with his eyes to keep that secret.

"This guy doesn't deserve you, James, because he doesn't love you" Arturo left his position to go to the bed and take his leather wallet. James looked at him with his mouth a little open. When he returned to the door, the look he and James shared was raw. "Life has united us again. Think about that"

Arturo passed by Cristiano's side and went to the corridor that led to the hostel's exit. James ran to open but wasn't able to tell him anything and the only thing he could do was watch him leave in his car heading north. The feeling in his chest was uncomfortable, heavy. He could feel Junior's eyes on him with a million questions. But he told both of them to come in and then he closed the door of his room and the silence came until Cristiano released Junior, who was twisting his hands and James saw him running towards him.

He carried him in his arms, tied him to his body strong and felt his little nose buried in his neck. James sniffed him too until his own nose itched with the effort. James could feel the soft warmth that spread through his chest and then through his entire body and he could hear his son's soft cry. He felt that he didn't feel like releasing him anymore. He felt that he could be able to run out of that room with Junior in his arms and never go back. He didn't realize that he was crying too. Cristiano's look on top of them now seemed melancholy, pitiful. The two continued clinging tightly, united as they were that sweetest nine months of their lives. James felt Cristiano's hand on his shoulder but refused to open his eyes. If this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up.

"It's okay, it's okay" said Cristiano, trying a fatherly tone. "He's here now"

James wasn't sure if he was talking to him or Junior. However, he answered with a hoarse throat.

"I couldn't bear to lose him again"

Cristiano tried to charge Junior, but Junior didn't want to release James and James refused to have his son pulled out of his arms again. He felt as if he were again giving birth at the clinic. He felt that his son was being taken from his womb. He promised himself that such a thing was never going to happen again.

"Okay, let's sit down? Let's talk" Cristiano's voice seemed far away.

But James nodded after a while. He made a space in the bed with Junior in his arms. Junior sat on his legs and stayed still and silent, pushing his little face right into James' chest. When James crossed his eyes with Cristiano's, he didn't understand what was going on in the Portuguese's head. Everything seemed suddenly so strange and so improbable. But it was happening. Cristiano and Junior were in the room, Junior didn't hate him, Junior wanted to be with him above all else. James gave his son a kiss in the hair. He saw Cristiano smile slightly and the gesture seemed sweet to him.

"Are we going to talk, with Junior right here?" James managed to mumble.

"I told him: what has to happen, it will happen"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, sorry for the delay guys! I'm actually trying to think how many days should I take to update every chapter!
> 
> So! Cristiano is a good man, a good alpha and above all a good father. He can't stand to see his son sad so he wants to do anything to make him smile again. 
> 
> Junior just wants his real family together. James was being teared apart without Junior by his side!
> 
> Arturo is in the fight for James! He's actually pretty interested in James but for James there's only one alpha.
> 
> The truth can be near!!
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments, kudos and visits! <3


	15. Like a fairy tale

They had both been looking at each other for much longer than James'd think was right and he didn't know how many more minutes he'd be able to hold Cristiano's gaze or to hold Junior's breath right in his chest. He had tried sometimes to avoid his eyes. James couldn't say what Cristiano's look meant this time. He could read so many things in it. Compassion, a little bit of grief, anger, maybe? But love, love felt it beyond his penetrating and deep gaze. James was able to perceive that Cristiano wasn't coming to finish everything and that, instead, he was looking for a path in him.

He smiled at him when he understood and hugged Junior a little harder, only to know that all this that was happening was real.

"I waited so long for this time," it occurred to James to say, looking down at Junior's eyes. "I don't know how to start"

"I haven't done my part totally" responded Cristiano and James had to frown. "I haven't spoken with Georgina"

"Georgina knows"

"It's not about that." Cristiano smiled at Junior, who, in between James' arms, sometimes tried to catch his eye. "About our relationship"

"Oh," James whispered then. "Did you have time to think what you're going to do? Have you told Junior?"

"Tell me what?" Junior's eyes widened, but James shook his head. He couldn't be sure of the meaning of Cristiano's words.He wanted to ask him what was the real reason, what relationship he had to talk about. Was he in there, in between? Would Cristiano say his name? What was the plan finally? He was so eager to know and to hear him utter from his lips that he was going to tell Georgina that from now on he was going to share his life with his son and him. James had to hug Junior, just to not do something stupid.

"Georgina and I are going to separate" Cristiano said, very gently and James allowed Junior to settle on top of him so that he could look at his dad in the front. "We were having problems a long time ago. It's the healthiest thing we can do. I'm sorry if you were fond of Georgina, but that she and I are not together anymore does not mean that Georgina is going to stop loving you or that you're going to stop seeing her"

James watches carefully, not wanting to intrude.

"You're not in love with her anymore?" That's Junior's first question and James decides to look away, although he can still notice Cristiano's smile, mischievous and decisive, stuck in him.

"I want her, I really love her"

"So?"

"Another person came into my life and I realized that I want to be with that person and not with Georgina. Actually, Junior, this person came back to my life. We had met before "

When James closes his eyes, he can pretend that his heart isn't going to come out of his chest. He tries to remember the speech he planned for when the moment finally arrived, but nothing comes to his memory. It's just him, Cristiano and his son, in a little room in a hostel in Madrid. That's where the truth will appear again and James doesn't know whether to cry with joy or scream with fear. He cannot imagine what he would do if Junior didn't like the truth for which he has fought for months.

He would like to tell Cristiano that it would have been kind of him to invite him to plan together the way they would tell Junior the truth, but, after all this time, James doesn't really feel worthy of something like that.

"Is it James?"

James then looks at the ceiling for seconds.

"Cris, I'm going to tell you a story" Cristiano's voice is soft and sweet. "Do you want to hear it? I can tell you if James allows me to"

Junior nods quickly, undoing his embrace with James.

"James, please" his little hands, fat and cold, James can feel them in his arms.

Then looks at the alpha in front of him. At the world star, the Real Madrid footballer who met at eighteen years old and asked him to sleep in a motel one night. The alpha that let him wake up alone in a cold, empty room he didn't know. The alpha who left his life without even saying goodbye. But this world star, this Real Madrid player, this pretentious alpha, was the man who had given Junior and was, at the same time, the man to whom James had given the most precious thing he could ever have.

Even when so many things had happened between them, James didn't doubt Cristiano. He believed and knew that Ronaldo would't say anything that would make Junior hate him or get angry or hurt. James was confident that Cristiano would say the right words and Junior's eyes did nothing but squeeze his heart and convince him that things were just following the course they should follow. He nodded softly, giving his son a sincere smile. He later saw Cristiano. He was just trying to resist the urge to cry.

"Fine" replied Cristiano, settling down on the bed. He sat cross-legged on the quilts and Junior left James to give him full attention. "It was the year 2009 and the World Cup in South Africa was going to start soon. Real Madrid had signed me a little while ago and I was going to play with Portugal. I was very happy, but I didn't feel... complete"

"Because I wasn't there," Junior answered, very seriously. "I was born in 2010"

Cristiano and James looked at each other discreetly and smiled.

"Exactly" Ronaldo continued. "And between the training sessions with the national team, we had to play with the Colombian team, so we traveled to Medellin to face them"

"James, you're from Colombia!" Junior jumps suddenly, happy and showing his teeth.

"Yes, that's right" James whispers.

"And we trained in a small sports complex, an omega soccer club in the city." Cristiano took one of Junior's hands, selflessly.

"That's where you saw omegas playing football, didn't you, Dad?"

"Yes, I saw many omegas players, but one in particular captured my eyes instantly. Do you remember that we have seen how in the TV series people fall in love at first sight? Yes? Well, I felt that something similar had happened to me"

James inhales deeply. He feels dizzy and has to put his hand to his forehead. He is sweating a little.

"I didn't dare to talk to him. It gave me a bit of shame then. But we played the game with Colombia and Portugal won. We went with some of the guys to celebrate at a bar in town. All very exclusive, I didn't want people to see us. And you know who was there? 

Junior's eyes are bright and dilated.

"That omega!"

"Yes! He was there, with his own mates. In the end I encouraged myself and invited him to have a drink, but he ignored me. He rejected me, Cris! I admit that it could have been my fault at first. I wasn't very nice. But I wanted to approach him in any way. He was a very, very nice omega. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't really know how"

"What did you do then?" Junior asked, frowning. "Did you talk to him? Did he look like James? Because James is from Colombia and is an omega and plays football"

"I talked to him, yes. I flirted him" laughs Cristiano. "Until he told me his name. You couldn't believe his name, but I'm not going to tell you what his name was, until you know the end of the story"

Ronaldo cleared his throat, trying to elude the child's emotion. He looked at James out of the corner of his eye, but James never blinked.

"We started talking and we liked each other. We went together from that bar. I tell you a secret? That night, you started to descend from heaven and began to grow in the belly of that omega"

James covers his hand, only to avoid a moan or a hoarse sob escaping him. Junior doesn't notice that, he looks at Cristiano intently. The room suddenly falls into a deep silence and they can barely hear the murmurs of the rest of the residents crossing the corridor. If Junior drew conclusions now, James wouldn't know how to react. Inevitably, the question of why will come. Why he was not there with him, why when he opened his eyes, James wasn't the first thing he saw.

"But we couldn't be together" Junior pouted. "He was a teenager and I had so many things around me... He was very young when you were born and couldn't take care of you. He didn't have much money and thought that, the best thing was that you stayed with me because I could buy you clothes and milk and take good care of you"

The ticking of the clock is violent and painful.

"You were born in Colombia on a very rainy day. Grandma went to look for you and we had you with us at home. We love you all from the first moment. But your omega dad, the one who had you in his belly for nine months, loved you too and could not disappear from our lives forever. He decided to come and look for you. He is here now"

When it happens, James trembles very gently. Junior blinks slowly and Cristiano keeps an affable smile on his face. Slowly, Junior turns to observe James and the look they share says a lot. James wants to stretch his arms and embrace Junior until he cannot anymore, but Junior doesn't seem receptive or happy or anything. Cristiano is also able to notice and, the three of them alone in that room understand that the truth is something that they hadn't thought to support now.

"The name of the omega that I met in Colombia is James Rodríguez. You, Cris, were born of James. James is your dad"

-

The room has been very cold. James wants to say something, but he doesn't dare. Cristiano also doesn't seem to know what the correct words are. Junior's eyes have left James's face a few seconds ago and James has no idea how to deal with his son's painful attitude. He'd like to do many things. He would like to hold him and contain him, but he's afraid to stretch his arms and feel Junior's rejection. Because Junior has not said anything, he hasn't cried or laughed or smiled or been angry, there is no way to know what is going on with his little head.

Cristiano caresses his shoulder, he is the first to whisper "son" but Junior frowns suddenly and opens his mouth, blinking many times. And, although James has imagined how that question will sound and what he will respond, at that moment he remains white and petrified, afraid of what Junior's words might mean.

And that is the worst in the world.  
    
"But if you're my dad, why did you leave me?"

James hits a sob.

"Oh, Junior," he says, tangling him in his arms. Junior cries very slowly and tries in vain to wipe away the tears, putting his little hand between James' chest. James whispers Junior, Junior, Junior, without rest, kissing his hair and forehead and his entire face. His tears are his own tears and he can feel his pain as if it were his own. It's his own, anyway. Junior was born of him and James regrets every day of having separated him from his side. "Forgive me. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to leave you. I love you so much"

"But you left. I always asked dad where you were, but he said you were traveling. He said you could come back someday"

"I know, I couldn't get close before because I was very afraid. I was very young, Junior, and I couldn't take care of a baby. I didn't have money. I couldn't give you the things you needed. I thought the best thing for you was to stay with your dad, but believe me, please, that it never happened a single day that I didn't think of you. You were in all my thoughts "

"But why did you come now? Why didn't you come before?" Junior asks miserably.

"I was so afraid..." James tries to explain, but Junior shakes his head.

"And I wanted you to come back and I was waiting for you, but you never came"

"Honey, I know that no reason I can give you will be enough. I did wrong. I wasn't a good dad, but never doubt that I loved you during all this time and that I will continue to love you for the rest of my life. You're my son, I'm your father and I don't want to do anything other than embrace you every day. If only you could forgive me... I just want you to forgive me"

"And why didn't you tell me that James was my dad?" Junior rebukes Cristiano later, but he doesn't seem angry now, but sad.

"I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't want to hurt you"

"Junior, I know this is difficult. I waited a long time for this moment. My love for you will be intact forever. I understand if you're sad and confused and don't want to talk. I'll answer every question that you have. I just want you to know that I love you"

Cristiano takes James' hand, interlace their fingers and then squeezes a little. He seems to intend to kiss his on the back, but stops just at the right moment. James looks up to see his eyes and all he finds is a calm smile, the same smile he gave that night after loving him. Junior doesn't see it in his face, but James doesn't care. He doesn't let go of Cristiano's hand when he decides to surround his son with his arms. Junior doesn't try to get away from his embrace either.

That's when James feels that they could start to be a real family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time people! I don't have an actual reason for my delay :(
> 
> Anyway, this chapter will probably have a continuation but I wanted to dedicate a chapter alone for all the truth.
> 
> Cristiano decided to tell Junior the truth like it was a fairy tale, Junior is very confused about his feelings and James is just trying to understand him.
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and visits!!


	16. A life to prove it

"What's it like in Colombia?" That's the first question Junior asks after long minutes of silence and it's also what makes Cristiano blink as if he's just waking up. James' bed has become the nest of the three of them. It's cold in the room, although the windows are closed. The blankets, however, have a soft and comforting warmth, a sweet smell that flits around everywhere. Cristiano sucks it deeply and savors it between his mouth. It smells like James, Junior and him, all together.

"It's nice. It's hot even when it rains." He hears him answer. Cristiano decides to settle on the pillow and hold his head with his hand. James' eyes are red from the crying that has endured. His face, on the other hand, demonstrates an infinite temperance and a giant realization.

Junior doesn't answer. He looks down, away from James. Nor does he react when James runs his hands through his hair. The moment he decides, at last, to see him in the face makes Cristiano squeeze the heart. Junior's eyes are as big as James' eyes. His eyelashes are long and dark. The look between them is very deep and Cristiano feels like he's not part of it. As, in fact, he doesn't have the right to say anything.

That the meeting and the truth is James and Junior's. That this is the moment for which he waited all his life.

"You know what? There in Medellin, where I live, there are people waiting to meet you" whispers James with a toothless smile. Junior shrugs, but curves his head anyway and watches him with longing eyes, full of curiosity. "Yep. People who love you very much"

"Who?" Junior asks again.

Cristiano can find James' look and they both smile very little. Cristiano can't help it, but he is eager to hear every word that James has to say. Partly because he knows that all of this will make Junior happy, partly also because James' voice and accent and the way his little mouth opens are the sweetest things.

"My mom, my sister and my stepfather. And a good friend"

"Do you have a mom?" Junior blinks quickly. "Like Grandma?" He says later, looking at Cristiano.

Cristiano just nods and James touches Junior's arm again, to get his attention.

"You have another grandmother, whose name is Pilar" James smiled. "She is so excited to meet you. She calls me every day just to find out how you are doing. When I still didn't tell you the truth... I talked on the phone with her, do you know what she told me for you, Cris?" James waited a few seconds, before the attentive and fixed look of his son. Slowly, he raised his hand and tangled his long fingers between Junior's wavy strands, smiling at him with his eyes and mouth. "That you have a grandmother in Colombia who is waiting for you with a heart full of joy. She loves you since always"

Sometimes Junior seems so far away. As if he was still too stunned by the news and the surprises. He watches both of them in the eyes, fixedly, and then looks down at the sheets. Cristiano understands it. His little head is still not able to understand how things have happened. How suddenly James appeared and all his dreams of getting to know his Mama came true without warning. Cristiano knows that Junior is special. He could see it since he had him in his arms, when he was a baby. He's the best child in the world and Cristiano believes sometimes that he doesn't deserve him.

Also, sometimes, he feels he doesn't deserve James. That his childish, arrogant and cruel behavior that night in Medellín has managed to obtain an overly generous reward: reunion and love. Cristiano can read it. He can read the longing in James' eyes and in his whole face. He understands that James has tried to avoid him harshly, has tried to throw back all his feelings and focus on the relationship with Junior avoiding any more accurate approach to him. Cristiano also tried. But both pretend very badly.

It had been obvious, from the training in the sports complex. The depth of their gazes was inevitable. Maybe everyone could really notice it. Cristiano was aware of the jokes of his team mates, of their laughter and insinuations. Everyone said "go and fuck him. He's not going to tell you no" And he did it. Insensitive and selfish, he took him that night and then left. Cristiano was able to understand James' pain, loneliness and fear. The distrust and the constant space that he put between both.

He was dazzled, on the other hand, by the love he expressed for Junior and his irreversible need to be near him at every moment. His requests and his prayers seemed sweet and innocent, like a child who is scared and only wants to have what was always his. Cristiano sometimes thinks about the reality of James, about how he experienced Junior's pregnancy. James hasn't told him much, he has only let out small pieces of events, deftly controlling what he wants to be known and what not. Cristiano would like to ask him everything. Did you feel the baby kicking? Could you eat well? Did you buy him some clothes? You were thinking about me? Were you happy?

James is here now. James could hear all the feelings that he recognizes that he feels and that he kept silent for years. But would James believe him if he told him the truth? Would he come to understand that the love of them both is the most sincere thing in the world and that Junior is the most valid latent proof?

"Can I see a picture of her?" Cristiano had forgotten the question. James, however, nods happily and quickly and grabs his cell phone on the bedside table and mutters again, "I have a lot of pictures of her, I don't know which one to choose" as he laughs nervously and his hands tremble. Cristiano smiles tenderly.

How could he think about abandoning an omega like that? How could he have imagined that he could forget an omega like that?

"Here," says James finally, snuggling close to Junior. He brings closer the phone while zooming in on the image. Cristiano watches it with curiosity, then gets a look from James. James smiles at him and Cristiano feels his stomach tighten. "It's she. She's called Pilar" he repeats. "Here we were at home. You see? She is your grandmother"

Junior smiles slowly. It's the first real smile Cristiano thinks Junior has given in all day.

"She's pretty" he replies. James cannot stand it, he leaves a tight kiss on his forehead and Junior smiles again, he lets out a tiny laugh. "She looks like you"

"Yes, a little. I also have a sister, do you want to meet her? Her name is Juana. She is your aunt. It's her, look" James slides his finger again on the screen of the smartphone. "Do you see her?"

"She doesn't look like you" Junior looks into James' eyes. Cristiano remains silent, believing that this moment belongs only to the two of them and that he has no right to interrupt.

"Yes, we don't look like each other very much. It's that she's my mom's daughter with another man, not my dad. With my stepfather who is this man" Junior leans in, James watches him later with arched eyebrows. "Juan Carlos is his name"

"So he's not really my grandfather?" Junior asks, bulging his lips. James blinks a few moments and seems to think about it.

"Oh no. I mean, he raised me. I love him very much. Maybe you could call him Steppa?"

Junior nods slowly and Cristiano runs his fingers down his cheeks.

"And your dad?" He asks later.

Cristiano sees that James shrugs and leans on Junior's little shoulders for seconds of silence.

"I know him, but I didn't grow up with him"

"Did he leave you when you were little?"

Junior's words aren't of hate or sarcasm, Cristiano knows it and believes that James knows it too. Even so, James' discomfort is evident. But he doesn't let it glimpse too much, he doesn't allow that his answer is contaminated by the victimization or the cruelty. Cristiano smiles when he hears James' response. James doesn't lose the grin on his lips and his eyes are still red and his freckled cheeks are stained. He's the usual one when he responds to Junior, sweetly.

"My mom and he got divorced when I was 5 years old. For a while we didn't talk, but now we get along"

"What's his name?"

"Wilson. Wilson James. From there I took my name, I guess"

"Do you have any pictures of him?" Junior asks with an illusion that Cristiano doesn't know, but James shakes his head.

"No, sorry".

Junior takes his little hands, but doesn't look at him.

"This is my family, Junior" whispers James, trying to get him to look him straight in the eyes. "These are the people who love you too and who are eager to meet you and know about you. My mom asks me every day about you. I didn't know when I was going to be able to tell her all this. This family, Junior, is full of love and I just want you to be part of that love, because you're my family too. You're my son and I loved you from the day I saw you"

"You have an amazing family, Cris" Cristiano takes the word, before the silence plagued by Junior's confusion. "That family, James' family, back there in Colombia, has waited six years to meet you. They have as much love to give you as Grandma and your aunts and uncles. You're very lucky, son. James isn't going to do anything other than love you, as he has done all his life"

"Would you like to visit your family back in Colombia, Junior?" James asks and Cristiano can sense all his anxiety. "They would be so happy to meet you"

Junior seems to think about it, then, he looks around the room. James takes his little hand in his own hands and carries it to his mouth. He gives him a little kiss, which makes Junior's cheeks turn red. There Cristiano thinks that this couldn't have been otherwise, that everything was worth it.

"I don't know" Junior mumbles with his little child voice. "Now?" He asks again, his eyes wide open.

"Anytime you want" James responds breathlessly.

"Maybe later"

"Ok" James releases, strangely quiet. "That's great"

"Now I just want to be with you"

Junior's words are the sweetest thing. His dark, large eyes are wide open and never leave James' face. Cristiano feels his chest tightened, his throat burns and his eyelids hurts. He wants to cry. Junior's simplicity and tenderness and affection are as painful as precious and Cristiano doesn't know how to deal with the confusion. It seems that the whole room smells so special.

The smell of James is like a ripe fruit, sweet and cloying. It causes the air to become dense. That same scent gets into Cristiano's nose and gives him impulses and feelings that he didn't know he had. He feels meek and soft, tender too. His chest swells to see them gathered there, in such a small place, in their own nest, to see his son and the omega that he wanted to make his. Junior looks like a little light, jingling everywhere. Being himself, surrendering at last to the love of the mother who he had needed all his life. Without resentment, but with nobleness and innocence.

James tells Junior that he loves him, just like that. That he wants to feel him at his side, for the rest of his life and Cristiano doesn't want something different.

He also wants the kiss that James gives Junior on the cheek, with affection and with desperation.

"Me too. I want to be with you forever"

James doesn't stop himself. He coils Junior with his arms and cradles him in his chest, makes him hear the beating of his heart. He hugs him until his tears stop and he sinks his nose into Junior's hair, he tells him things that Cristiano cannot understand due to the intimacy and closeness of the two of them. Cristiano doesn't feel an alien. He feels happy. He feels like the luckiest alpha in the world. James doesn't stop kissing Junior everywhere, doesn't stop sniffing and lulling him. It is the most moving scene. It's the image with which Cristiano wants to wake up every day.

"I'm never going to leave again, I promise you, Cris," whispers James.

Junior takes a deep breath in James' chest.

"I love your smell"

"Do you remember how you said, the first time we met, that you liked my scent?"

Junior nods with his head.

Cristiano closes his eyes.

"That's because I'm your dad"

James gives him one last kiss on the forehead, but he doesn't let him go. He holds him tight in his arms, as if he were afraid that he'd vanish suddenly.

"How should I tell you now?" Junior says with a very low voice, eyes closed and cheek resting on James' jacket. "Mom or Dad?"

"The way you like it most"

"How about Pa? Dad is Dad. Paula calls "Pa" to her omega dad"

Cristiano reads James' thoughts.

"OK, that sounds good"

"I missed you so much, Pa" Junior whispers, still in some kind of dream. James kisses his hair again.

"Me too. You don't know how much"

"I love you"

"I love you too".

Cristiano doesn't feel capable of interrupting. The bond between James and Junior is real and pure, immeasurable to his eyes. He can, however, get close carefully, feel the smell of James near his neck and caress the nose of his son. James seems receptive, just like Junior. The two of them release a purr when Cristiano settles behind, becoming the alpha protector of his pup and his mate that he had always been destined to be. Cristiano feels his chest rumbling with pride and love. His lips dare to even rest on James' cheek, telling him with that gesture all the words that he has stuck in his throat.

"How about our first family photo?"

James smiles silently.

"I would love to. What about you, Junior? "

"Mmh," Junior mutters, too warm and safe in his Pa's chest.

Cristiano removes the cellphone from the pocket of his black jacket and arranges it in front of them. On his face isn't the smile that he usually gives for magazines or for interviews or for commercials. There is the real and loving smile, which he keeps for the people he loves. James smiles too, posing innocuously for the camera. Cristiano's arms surround him whole and James' own arms ceaselessly support their son. Junior doesn't open his eyes, but he does smile. He is listening to the heartbeat of his Pa. Cristiano clicks and then it happens.

All this that is happening, it's happening for real.

"You don't know how much I waited for this moment," James says, chin resting on Junior's head.

"Almost the same time as me" answers Cristiano. "Only that I was looking for you before I even saw you there in Medellin"

James purrs, as omegas do when they are full with their alphas.

"Junior is the most real proof" Cristiano is looking at James in the eye.

"Of what?"

"That I love you since that day"

James swallows.

"And that now I have my whole life to prove it to you"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeey people! I'm so sorry for the delay :( University got me so busy!! But now I have time to keep writing ;) I never forgot this story!! 
> 
> So Junior and James are bonding. They love each other and Junior couldn't keep his cold attitude anymore.
> 
> James tells Junior about his family in Colombia!
> 
> And Cristiano is just being the alpha he is, showing how he really feels about James.
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and visits!!


	17. White butterflies

Cristiano's lips are transparent. Of a very light pink, it seems to mimic with all the other features of his face and also with his own skin. His cheeks are red but neatly shaved and James imagines how soft they should feel if he dared to run his hand over to give him a caress. His nose's a very beautiful thing. It's snub and smooth. He has long, thin eyelashes and his eyebrows are correctly outlined over his clear eyes. Cristiano's a very handsome alpha. He's tall and strong and huge, with a manly, dominant, intrepid and imposing smell. He smells like a pine tree, overwhelming and fresh and natural. James is captivated by his essence. The smell that comes out of him all. When James sucks deeply, his essence fills his lungs and calms all the negative thoughts. James believes that, with Cristiano there, close to him, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Cristiano is definitely the most attractive alpha James has ever seen. None of the feminine and masculine alphas that James met in Colombia could even come close to Cristiano's dazzling perfection. Every time Cristiano appears in front of him, his breathing is cut off and his words are numb. He becomes like the naive teenager who met his idol one day and who was asked to share the bed.

Whenever Cristiano smiles at him, James cannot help responding with the same smile. He can get lost in his eyes only with a superfluous contact. Cristiano creates in him an inevitable and unmanageable attraction and James thinks that the reason for that is still very strange and nebulous. Cristiano was the first alpha in his life; He was the first person that James allowed to touch him and love him and sink into his body, so, anyway, Cristiano will always have a special place in his memories and his heart. Cristiano made him pregnant. He made him give birth to a precious child. Cristiano's the only one here, in this room, next to him.

When James was a teenager and saw Cristiano in the face for the first time, he imagined a dream encounter. Laughter and an instant crush. That, somehow, both were able to realize all the coincidences they had and how they were made for each other. James wanted to hear Cristiano, at that very moment, to really say it: how did it take me so long to find you? The first time was full of flirtatious nonsense, which, although they took him to the bed, didn't make Cristiano stay there.

Now, all this was so different from that time. Cristiano didn't seem to have a single intention to move away from his side. Instead, James thought too innocently that he wasn't going anywhere. The smell of Cristiano and his look and his warmth were so sincere and so real that although the realistic part of James refused, he was about to fall back into dreams again.

He just didn't want to wake up alone this time.

"I thought I wasn't going to be able to say a single word," James whispers. He still holds Junior tightly in his arms, smothering him tenderly with his smell and warmth. "When you started talking... I had no idea what you were going to say or what I was going to answer"

"But we did it right, didn't we? I know Junior and I didn't expect less from him. Actually, Junior waited for this moment all his life"

James smiled sweetly, looking at Cristiano directly in the eyes.

"Thanks for everything, Cristiano. Thank you for believing in me and for trusting me and for not doubting my love for my son"

Cristiano's face seemed to look for something else, but James understood at once.

"Our son," he corrected then.

"Our son" repeated Cristiano. "I like how it sounds"

"I like all this," James decides to say, still in a low voice. "This room, this strange heat, just the three of us. I want to go to sleep today, Cristiano, and I want all this to continue happening when I wake up in the morning"

"There is nothing else that I want more. And I'm sure Cris wants it too. Don't you want, Cris, to see James every day?"

"Every day!" Junior screams so he can be heard through Pa's arms and James laughs, kissing his hair many times.

"I feel like I'm living something like an utopia or some bizarre idyll. Sorry for the words, it's just that..." James tried to explain, looking at the wall because Cristiano's eyes were too deep and intimidating. "I waited so much for this moment. I waited so much for Cris and for..."

"You know what, James? You can't keep living here"

James' heart stops. With probability Junior can feel his change and his tension, because he separates from him and pulls the sleeve of his shirt. His eyes are very large and they are anxious and James runs his fingers through his hair again, trying to calm him down with his smile and his restless pheromones that flutter around the room.

"What do you mean?" James prefers to ask, very slowly.

"In this hostel and in this room," replies Cristiano. James wants to look away and return to the tranquility that Junior's eyes give him, but Cristiano doesn't allow it. His big, powerful hand holds his jaw tightly. James gasps at the contact. Cristiano's fingers burned his face. "I don't want you to come back to this room anymore. I want you to live in the place that corresponds to you. In La Finca, in my house, next to your son and your alpha, where you always belonged"

James' mouth is open and his hands tremble between Junior's body.

"Where you will always belong"

"Oh, please, Pa, say yes" Junior's voice sneaks in and James blinks in confusion. Junior seems so wistful and Cristiano's once dominant and alpha attitude has become an adorable and gentle behavior. Cristiano looks so calm. James can smell his peace and that is the most addictive and most pleasant smell in the whole world. "Pa, please, please." James looks at Junior with a frown, then turns his eyes towards Cristiano.

"I don't know, is it the right thing? Should we, just now? I mean... your mom and your family, what are they going to say?"

"Grandma will be very happy" Junior intercedes and Cristiano smiles.

"My family is going to accept what makes me happy and what makes Junior happy" Cristiano's voice is very clear when he says it finally: "And you make us both incredibly happy"

James would have kissed him. He would have tied himself to his neck, curled up in his chest, held Junior between them and never let him go. Cristiano is everything. Cristiano and Junior are the only people he sees when he closes his eyes. Cristiano and Junior are the only people James wants to spend the rest of his life with. Knowing that Cristiano and Junior feel the same is an immeasurable emotion for James. James could sink into the loving feeling of this new life that is starting with the two people he wanted.

If it's a dream, he never wants to wake up.

James grabs Junior and takes him to his lap again; he lets him hear the beating of his heart. When Junior sighs hard, James rests his head on Cristiano's shoulder. Cristiano said he was his alpha, Cristiano told him that his side was next to him. James wants to cry hard, he wants to scrub his cheeks over Cristiano's chest until his scent is over his entire body.

"Don't cry, please" James hears Cristiano say and he must laugh, wiping his eyes with his hands. Junior repeats "Pa don't cry" and James kisses him hard on the top of his head. "I thought I was doing things right"

"It's not that" James shakes his head, blinking quickly and looking into his eyes. "You're doing everything right. I just don't think this is real"

"Should I pinch your arm?" Jokes Cristiano and Junior laughs too. "Do I offer you something else so that you realize that all this is really happening?"

James sighs on Cristiano's shoulder.

"I dreamed about this all my life"

James doesn't know if Junior or Cristiano are watching him. He has his eyes open, but he cannot see either of them.

"I knew you before. I followed your game, the teams you were on. I wanted to be like you. You seemed ridiculously handsome" James laughs, giving a longer blink than usual. "When I saw you training at the sports complex in Medellín, I dreamed that we would cross our gazes and fall in love at first sight and then we would get marry and you'd bring me to Spain. And you would introduce me to the whole world as your omega. But that was very silly." James sips his snot. "You were a football star and I... well, I wasn't anyone important"

"You were important" Cristiano responds and surprises James. "You are important. I noticed you since the moment I arrived. You were awesome, in every way"

"It seems like it really happened at the end, doesn't it?" James smiles, eyeing Cristiano with the sweetest look. "We were looking for each other from the beginning"

"It was like after all this time, everything made sense suddenly, just by looking at you"

Junior slowly stretches to look at his parents there, in front of him. James can see the world in Cristiano's eyes, he can see his destiny in Junior's face.

"I've waited so long for you, Cristiano," James mutters, while Cristiano leans his forehead on his. Their scents flood the room, their breaths are the only sound there. James's lips tremble at just imagining how Cristiano's mouth would feel on his, now that he can remember it. Now that that feels like the only right thing in the world. "I've been waiting for you so much"

"I'm here now. Now Junior is here" Cristiano takes his shoulders and moves him away gently. James looks at the quilts until Cristiano's hands clean with his thumbs the tears that accumulate in his eyes. "Let's leave the past behind, James. And stay with me"

"I wouldn't go anywhere," James says against his lips. Cristiano caresses his cheeks and puts him back as close as he can. He runs his nose with James' nose, his mouths are so close that James can feel his warm breath on top of him. He needs it with pain. He needs him for all those years of raw and lacerating separation. Cristiano is the light at the end of the tunnel, he is everything. "I don't want to be away from you anymore"

When Cristiano kisses him, in the most pure and innocent way, James feels that exactly all this makes sense. There's nothing, of all the things that happened, that shouldn't have been. Each of them was worth it. His fear and sadness, the painful and heavy years, the indifference of Cristiano, the separation with Junior. Each one of those aspects managed that the moment of the reunion was the image indicated in his dreams. Cristiano is the sweetness he wants to have on his mouth every day. His lips are the softest thing he has ever felt and he doesn't even want to stop feeling them.

A thought comes to his mind, however, when Cristiano moves away making a noise that makes his hair stand on end.

Is Cristiano really sincere? Won't he leave now, like he walked away that night in Colombia?

Is he going to stay by his side forever this time? Like an alpha and an omega. As a real couple.

"I'm not going to leave. Never again" Cristiano says with his eyes closed, breathing his very air, as if he had read his thoughts. James takes his cheeks with his hands, almost afraid of being lied to. It's the perfect moment of his life. The only unknown but desired instance. Cristiano leaves a sweet kiss on his forehead and James purrs without fear. He'd like to say "I love you", but Junior's laughter wakes him up suddenly.

Embarrassed, James pulls away Cristiano and blinks at his smile. He didn't see Junior's question coming.

"So Dad and Pa, when is the wedding?"

"Hey, young man, let's go step by step," joked Cristiano.

-

"I want you to pack your things right now," said Cristiano, moving around. He had his cell phone in his hand and James watched him all the way. "We're going home tonight"

"Pa, I can't wait. I want to show you everything. Our puppies, my toys, my cousins... " Junior spoke as he ran to all the limits of the room. James blinked slowly, not understanding too much.

"Are you sure it's the right thing to do?" He asked again. "Look, there's nothing else I want more than being with you guys right away and every day, but I'm a little afraid of what your family can say. The press, Cristiano. Have you thought about Georgina? God, poor Georgina".

"What's wrong with Georgina?" Junior asks loudly.

"Nothing, Cris" answers Cristiano but James shakes his head.

"She's going to be so mad"

"Hey, do you really need this ball?" Cristino asked suddenly and James frowned. It was his old ball that he used to ask for money in the street. "It's dirty and I don't think the memories that it brings to you are the best"

"That's the ball you were playing with when we first met" Junior says with wide eyes.

James nods many times, smiling and stuffing a pair of jeans and T-shirts into his black bag.

"Exactly"

"Then let's keep it," Junior declared. "Please, dad. I want it"

Cristiano grimaced and seemed to think about it, but not for too long. He ended by saying yes with his head.

Leaving the room that had housed him for months gave James mixed feelings. It was sad and exciting at the same time and it only caused a mess in his stomach. He had arrived in Madrid with the intention of returning to Colombia immediately after being able to talk to Junior. The possibility of starting something with Cristiano had been hidden deep in his most intimate thoughts. He could have dreamed it, but without believing that it'd really happen one day. Life was ironic.

He had stepped on Spanish soil hoping to get Junior. Now he had obtained Cristiano too.

"This ball is very old" James decided to tell Junior while still packing his few belongings. "I used it when I played at the Omegas Club of Medellín. It has a lot of stories to tell, anyway "

"How many goals did you get with it?" Junior asked and James shrugged, as if thinking about it.

"I'm not sure" he replied. "But several more than your dad at Real Madrid, I swear to you".

Cristiano huffed at the little mockery. James and Junior laughed and then Cristiano's cell phone started ringing.

"Who is it, Dad?" Junior said quietly.

James watched Cristiano closely.

"It's Grandma" replied Cristiano. "She must want to know where we are"

Cristiano touched the screen and Junior and he remained silent. Cristiano seemed not to want them to hear the conversation, for the way he looked at them and the expressions on his face. He couldn't go further, in any case. James was afraid it was not good news. Cristiano stared at the window in James' room and James didn't understand why. Everything that window showed in the wall was the small yard that the hostel had.

"Hey, do you want to watch TV before we leave?" James decided to ask Junior very slowly, but Cristiano heard them. He grunted and shook his head and James didn't understand. "What's wrong?" He modulated without speaking. Cristiano looked worried. When he hung up and took a deep breath, James approached at a fast pace.

"Dad, what did Grandma say?" Junior started.

"Cristiano, did something bad happen?"

"We cannot leave yet." Cristiano looked James in the face and James frowned.

"Why?"

"It's full of paparazzis outside. My mom just called to tell me. I don' know how they found out, but they're here. It was Arturo" Cristiano realized then. "It was Arturo, I'm sure"

"No," James argued immediately. "He wouldn't be able"

"Then who?" Cristiano spat.

It made James burn his throat to say it.

"Georgina"

Someone knocked on the door of the room. James, Junior and Cristiano looked at each other, but they remained in a heavy silence. Behind that door, could be anyone. James didn't dare to move forward. He was confused and afraid that, suddenly, the dream he had been living became a nightmare. He was afraid of having to finally wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the boys had their first kiss! Although just a lingering lip kiss because there's a child present ;) 
> 
> Cristiano wants James to move in with them! 
> 
> Someone is loitering their happiness: Georgina or Arturo?
> 
> Guys I think that the next chapters will have again 3 scenes like the olds chapters used to have, as the truth has already came out. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your visits, comments and kudos!!


	18. Shouting from the hills

"No" Cristiano's voice sounded hoarse, so James didn't step forward. Instead, he held Junior's shoulders clinging to his body protectively. He couldn't sniff any recognizable smell among the open spaces. It didn't resemble Arturo's essence, as Cristiano had suggested. Neither could James assure that it was Georgina's smell. Anyone could really be outside. Some of the other tenants, even snooping journalists. Nothing was too safe.

"What do we do then?" James chose to say. Junior raised his head to see him up, but James didn't return his gaze.

"I'm going to open" Cristiano replied stoically and James shook his head, leaving Junior's shoulders to rest his hand on Cristiano's. The alpha seemed determined in a way that James didn't know how to limit and he was also not sure that his offer would ultimately result in the best for all three.

"No, we don't know who is there," he said at the end. "Let's stay here, don't open the door"

"Pa, what's going on?" Junior whispered and James could smell the fear growing in him slowly. He took him by the shoulders and pulled him closer, stroking his hair without stopping.

"Nothing. Everything is fine"

"We cannot just stay here. How long are we going to be able to stay here?" Cristiano strode away and James couldn't reach him. The only thing he had in his hands was the latent possibility that Cristiano would change his mind or decide, finally, to do something that remained immeasurable to him. James didn't know what to expect. He didn't know what thing was really right now.

"At least until the people out there go away..."

"They're not going to leave, James" Cristiano said as if that was a truism. James shrugged his shoulders. "We have no other option. Even if we lock ourselves up until tomorrow or try to go out at night, they're going to stay out there, waiting for us"

"Is that bad, dad?" Junior asked suddenly and Cristiano and him were left looking confused.

"What is bad?" Repeated Cristiano.

"To let the people out there see us"

James didn't know what to answer exactly. He blinked many times in a row, unable to open his mouth. Junior's question was curious, too innocent too. He seemed to say it without fearing the consequences and without measuring the disturbances it could cause. James understood him, he could understand Junior's pure intentions. But he wasn't so sure of the thoughts that ran through Cristiano's head and, although he looked into his eyes and tried to discover what things were there, he saw himself as incapable.

Cristiano had decided to ask him to move to his house, but that wasn't the complete step. There were a lot of other things to accept. Dolores had to recognize his arrival as a necessary and correct situation. Georgina had to begin to fade away from the three of them slowly. Would Cristiano's siblings ever accept him? Would Cristiano's entire family be able to integrate him as if he had always been part of them? James loved all this that was happening, but he was still very confused. Deep inside him, he wondered when it would be the moment when he would have to wake up.

Maybe that would happen now, when the three of them decided to cross that door.

"Is it bad, Dad?" Junior insisted, but Cristiano didn't say a word and that made James' stomach twist. "Don't you want them to see Pa with us?"

The door sounds again, more insistently. James looks nervously at it.

"On TV, they talked about Pa"

Cristiano advanced until he was in front of the door completely. He stretched out his hand with a complex slowness, which made James close his eyes and put his arms around his son's shoulders. Cristiano seemed, now, ready for everything. Without fear of opening the door and discovering who was behind, bothering them. James has a lot of mixed feelings. Junior seems to sense his tension and his anxiety, because he curls up on his belly and closes his eyes and James can feel his lips right above his shirt and his skin. Junior's the sweetest of all and because of him James is willing to go through anything.

"You're right, Cris" James hears Cristiano say. Then he opens his eyes and stares at him. Cristiano turns the handle and James' heart will explode. "You're always right"

The door is open and James incessantly searches for a familiar face or a familiar smell but the face that appears there isn't known in the sense that he would have expected. It's curious and strangely relaxing. It's not Georgina nor is Arturo. It's the owner of the hostel. A woman older than her mother and more robust, with a ponytail in her hair and with her mouth and eyes wide open. She looks at Cristiano as if she had seen a ghost and Cristiano looks at her with curiosity.

The woman then turns her gaze towards James and towards Junior, who tries to look hidden in between his arms and his protection. James smiles with subtlety, too restless to know what is right to do now. Should he explain the situation? Should he introduce the woman to Junior and Cristiano? Junior doesn't let him go when he tries to move to get closer to the woman, so James gives up because his son needs him much more than that woman who only seeks to solve her doubts.

"Mrs. Garcia..." James begins, without leaving his position.

"Who is this woman?" Cristiano interrupts him and James looks him in the eyes when he answers with sincerity.

"She owns the hostel," he explains. "She is…"

"Oh my God, it's true" the woman also stops his speech and James and Junior frowned, so James must squeeze Junior more just to make him feel like he's there. "You are Cristiano Ronaldo's boyfriend!"

The room is filled with a silence that is only interrupted by the murmurs of the other inhabitants of the hostel, gathered in the corridors behind Mrs. García's back.

"There are a lot of people out there," the woman says, as if asking for explanations. James nods quickly. "What they say is true. I had Cristiano Ronaldo's boyfriend living in my own home, for God's sake"

"We're going to go talk to them, sorry for all the scandal. I didn't think it would happen, really" answers James trying to apologize, taking his two ready bags in his hands.

The atmosphere inside is tense and uncomfortable and James just wants to escape.

"I'm going to tell the journalists," the woman later declared, turning around to make her way to the narrow corridors that led to the exit. "They must know that Cristiano Ronaldo is here with you"

"Pa, what is she going to tell them?"

With that simple word, the woman stops. She turns slowly and looks at them with an inquisitive scowl. James believes that this is all, but Cristiano, by the door, looks strangely calm, as if he had known from the beginning that all this was going to happen.

"Why does the child call you like that?" The woman asks with a hoarse voice. James shakes his head. "He called you Pa. Are you the boy's dad?"

"Enough" then Cristiano put out his voice and then everything felt like a whirlwind. Cristiano took his arm and led him along with Junior to cross the threshold of the door and walk through the corridors and the few guests who took pictures and waited for a signature. James thought he was in a hurricane. Junior tied his hands to his clothes, moving among the people and following his father. James wanted to vomit. His hands were tenaciously holding the handles of the bags. He could smell the fear and the uncertainty and the anxiety, all as a single scent and when finally Cristiano opened the door of the hostel and James managed to see the light of the cameras and heard the screams of the people there in the street, he could know that all this was real.

-

Men and women. Alphas, betas and omegas were yelling questions straight in his face and James was blinking, confused by the noise and all the lights and flashes and the unknown people who were trying to scratch their privacy and discover the truth of any motive. James couldn't understand the figure of Cristiano. He was standing there so stoically; probably used to the cameras and paparazzis. He didn't falter at any time. He looked haughty and confident moving his eyes among all the people, very close to him and Junior, protecting them too.

James, on the other hand, was trying to remain sparing. He held very strong Junior's shoulders, getting their bodies as close as possible. He kept him safe. He wanted to sink his nose into his dark curls, but he was afraid that suddenly everyone could notice that action and realize it. 

It was one thing to be Cristiano Ronaldo's boyfriend. The male omega that got Cristiano to cheat Georgina Rodríguez and abandon her. But, another thing was to be recognized, finally, as the hidden mother of Cristiano Ronaldo Junior. The one that had never been heard before, the one that journalists and entertainment magazines constantly searched for years.

Cristiano Ronaldo Junior's mother was only known through rumors. Many very successful, but none had managed to fully grasp his true identity. James thinks it's ironic. The TV shows had never hinted at it. Could they even imagine that the person they searched for so long was stood in front of them, holding the son he had let go so long ago? Would they believe the story? Would they blame Cristiano or, instead, throw their darts at him? What would Junior's teammates say when they heard the truth? Would the world ever know the truth? Would the reason for the separation of James and Junior come to light? The money, the commitment, the contract?

James gasps, too confused and uncomfortable when a reporter pushes the microphone close to his face and yells at him if all the rumors are true.

"Cristiano, Cristiano!" Everyone shouts there, but James doesn't dare to look at Cristiano. Instead, he still holds his son tightly in his hands, as if he wanted to protect him from the people around. "It is true? Are you finished with Georgina Rodriguez because of this guy? Who is he, Cristiano? Do you like male omegas? Why is he hugging your son?"

The words echo inside James' head and he only manages to cover Junior's ears, clinging him even more to his body.

"Cristiano, why are you here? Does Georgina know that you are here with him? Did you cheat her?"

They keep talking and talking and James cannot hear Junior's words above all their screams. He closes his eyes, bending his head.

Then it happens.

"I'm going to clarify the situation now," Cristiano murmurs loudly. James raises his head and opens his eyes big, just like Junior. The journalists are keeping a gradual silence, surprised by Cristiano's position and his dominant scent and his safe appearance. James is going to faint soon, he is sure. "There has been a lot of talk in the media about my personal relationships. You all have tried to get my statements at all costs, violating my privacy, fencing my house and harassing us in the school of my six-year-old son. This situation is no longer sustainable, so I'm going to make things clear now"

Cristiano looked at him and smiled, slowly. James couldn't answer the gesture and just watched him long and hard.

"My relationship with Georgina Rodríguez is over. There is nothing between us anymore. I have the best memories of her and I wish her the best. Georgina is a great person. I can't lie about the reasons, because I have to be honest with myself, with my son, with my family, with you and with the person I love."

He refers to you, Junior whispers near his ear in a very soft voice. James cannot take his eyes off of Cristiano.

"The omega that accompanies me is called James Rodríguez and you have already found out a lot about him. You haven't been too wrong, much of what you said is true. I can't continue with Georgina because James is here and James is the omega that I love and with whom I want to be"

Cristiano smiles again and this time James can return a tearful grin. He squeezes his shoulder gently and then runs his fingers through Junior's hair and Junior laughs and it doesn't matter anymore, as if the lights of the cameras and the pictures didn't really exist.

"James Rodríguez is my omega. He is the man I love and I want everyone to know it. He's part of my family now. Actually, he never stopped being part of my family"

That was the sentence with which the statement was finished. Cristiano signaled to James to leave for the car, besieged by cameras and flashes and journalists who shouted what the last sentence meant and what Junior had to do with all this. James walked among all the people, he was pushed and touched and all that seemed nothing. Cristiano was at his side. Junior was in front of him. Cristiano had finally said the words with which he dreamed all his life.

Cristiano had recognized, in front of the whole world, their relationship. He had shouted it from the hills. Not one more proof was necessary.

When they get into the car, he and Junior in the back and Cristiano driving, James insistently looks for Cristiano in the rearview mirror. Junior hasn't separated from his side and journalists start to be a distant blur on the road. Driving is fast, but smooth and silent. James supposes that this is how finally happiness feels.

"Dad said it" Junior raises his voice and James looks at him blinking. "Dad said he loved you, Pa"

James smiles with the biggest smile and looks, again, the eyes of Cristiano in the rearview mirror. When at last he gets his look, his eyes transmit the deepest peace in the world.

"It's over," said Cristiano, smiling too. "We are free at last"

"We are," James repeated. He left a kiss on Junior's crown and closed his eyes, allowing himself to be enveloped by the soft radio and by the smell of Cristiano and Junior that flooded the entire car. Heaven must be like this. What's next now can only be a paradise. "Finally free."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three scenes model will still have to wait!! 
> 
> Cristiano told the truth in front of everyone! Now the whole world knows that James is the omega he loves. That was the ultimately proof of love he'd make for James.
> 
> Some people won't be very happy for that (Georgina and Arturo).
> 
> Will the media finally discover the truth about James and Junior? 
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments, kudos and visits!!
> 
> Btw: I just wanted to show you people this song which I think is just made for Cristiano and James' relationship in this story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woazJ1Sbq3k -- It's in spanish but it is just perfect <3 Listen to it!!


	19. Heads or tails

Georgina turned off the TV and did the same with her cell phone. She couldn't stand the exorbitant amount of messages and calls and she wasn't able to see the pictures of Cristiano, James and Junior again and again on the screen. The videos of the hostel and those of the Cristiano's bravest confession mixed with Georgina's photos or the old images of her and Cristiano, walking hand in hand or vacationing in some Caribbean island. Georgina knew that the journalists were outside the bars of her house, but she didn't feel able to face the crowd.

She had called a couple of friends, to tell them the scope of the new relationship between Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez and she knew that they were responsible for the fact that television channels now had the exclusive rights in their hands. It was very likely that they'd release the rumor until everyone found out completely. Georgina didn't think that was a mistake. The complexity of the feelings she was experiencing at that moment prevented her from actually feeling guilty about the excessive meddling of the media that James and Cristiano had endured. It was like a small revenge, a necessary reward for the cold goodbye of Cristiano.

Cristiano had called her a couple of times, but she had decided not to answer. Georgina hadn't even read the messages he had left. Any excuse that Cristiano could give her would seem absurd. There was no reason why Cristiano's actions could be correct. Georgina had loved him madly, him and his son and Cristiano didn't have the right to take her away from his life in that way, showing it to the whole world.

Georgina understood the link between Cristiano and Junior with James and she knew that, in any case, the relationship she could have formed with the two of them was far from being as intense as the one James had now. James was Junior's mother and for Cristiano, Junior was above anyone, so Georgina knew that Cristiano would do everything for the happiness of his son. But Georgina had been so good, so kind and so correct. She had loved Junior as if she had really given birth to him, she held him every day that James had been absent since she met Cristiano and none of that seems to count now and Georgina felt sad and abandoned.

She knows that she cannot get the same place as James in Cristiano's life. Maybe, if she had managed to give Ronaldo a son, all of his alpha instinct would behave in the same way that it happens with James. But Georgina couldn't and now she realizes, as if she had an incredible revelation, that Cristiano never wanted to give her that right because, secretly, he kept deeply buried the illusion that James would come back one day and, together, they'd make up that family they had created years ago and from which Georgina could never be a part.

When she turns on the TV again, people talk about her and they say they understand how she's feeling right now and they call her "poor thing" and they agree that being changed by an male omega is so humiliating and they mention again that they just can't understand how Cristiano decided to tell them everyone that he loved another omega. Georgina's chest hurts and her pride hurts and she wonders if there is something wrong with her, if perhaps James surpasses her in innate characteristics that Georgina simply cannot reach. And she hates Cristiano for that and also hates James for snatching everything she loved.

And she wonders suddenly, will all life have been the same way? Will Cristiano have used her to pretend to all the people? Georgina believes, really, that she could have been better. If Cristiano had wanted it, she could have given him the same as James, even more.

The TV channels, which have her pictures right in front, still seem to focus only on the incipient relationship between James and Cristiano. They look for everything about who is James Rodriguez, where he comes from, what he does in his country, how he met Cristiano Ronaldo. But they never unite him to Junior and Georgina hates that they aren't able to realize the reality. A tall man, famous in the world of celebrities for knowing the most hidden gossip of the stars, dares to mention the testimony of the landlady of James, who said, surprisingly, that Junior has called James "Pa", when they were in the small room.

The women in the program say, with raised eyebrows, that there is the bond between James and Cristiano and they try to put together the puzzle of their relationship. Georgina would like to wait patiently for them, finally, to discover that all the rumors about the mother of Cristiano Ronaldo's son are true, because then everyone would go after James and Cristiano, asking them why they decided that Junior should wait six years to meet the omega who gave birth to him. And Georgina thinks that's fair, that's what they deserve.

"So," the blonde on the television murmurs, with her hands on her head. "If James Rodriguez is really Junior's mother, are all the rumors true? Did Cristiano really pay money to him for staying with his son? My God, if that were true, poor child!"

Georgina smiles and changes channels. In the next, the last minute information is displayed. All the morning shows, and even the sports ones, are covering the scandal of the year.

"Is James Rodriguez the mother of Cristiano Ronaldo Junior?"

Georgina wants to hear all the excuses of Cristiano and James. She wants to know if they have the guts to tell the world the whole truth.

-

"Your house is so beautiful," says James, walking shyly through the furniture of Cristiano's house. Junior tugs at his hand with constancy pointing to every corner, but James can barely move fully while holding his humble handbags tightly.

"It's also your house now, James," Cristiano replies, with the brightest smile and James feels his cheeks redden and hurt with so much smile.

"I couldn't show you my room the last time you came, Pa, are we going to see it now?" Junior has the sweetest face in the world and James feels that he melts, nodding again and again, knowing the spaces of the house of Cristiano and his son, smelling all the scents that will soon mix with his own.

"Yeah, come on. I'm dying to see it"

"Can I sleep with you today?"

Cristiano hisses amused, and James frowns, moving to what appears to be the door to Junior's room.

"Here in your room?" James asks.

"Nope, in Dad's bed. Sometimes Dad and I sleep together. We could all sleep together, like that time in your hostel"

"Cris" Cristiano takes the word between smiles, standing right in the doorway of Junior's room. Before sitting on the bed, James looks at him curiously. He cannot help feeling under some powerful spell every time he looks at him. Cristiano is seductive and James loves everything about him. His smell, his face, his hands... "Don't you want Dad and Pa to have some time alone to talk?"

And his cloying seduction, especially.

"Nah, I want to sleep with my Dad and my Pa for the first time"

James laughs and looks at Cristiano, raising his shoulders jokingly.

"Sorry, I can't say no to my sweet boy"

Cristiano approaches him, smiling and meek, and gives him a very short kiss on the lips, but with a giant tenderness and James cannot say anything when he sees him walk away. Cristiano does it with such incredible familiarity, with unequaled ease. He kisses him as if they had been kissing for years, as if they had known each other for so long. But James doesn't complain, he wants this every day. He wants Cristiano's mouth and Cristiano's chest and his smell and his heat and his protection over him, for the rest of his life.

"I love seeing you like that. I love when you treat our son so gently" Cristiano says, as if he's overwhelmed and happy and James looks him straight in the eye.

"It's my instinct, I suppose. It's what my heart dictates to me"

"James, you're going to drive me crazy"

James doesn't know if Cristiano refers to the good or the bad way, but he ventures without fear to leave a kiss on his cheek, a tender and affectionate one. Cristiano smiles slowly and Junior back, clearing his throat, makes himself noticed immediately.

"Pa, I thought I was going to show you my room"

"Sure! Let's see what nice stuff you have" James answers laughing and entering finally between the room wide and populated with Junior's toys.

"Look, these are my cars and these are my football balls. Here are my school notebooks and here at my desk I do my homework. But sometimes I do it at the dining room table, when Dad helps me..."

All of James' emotions are real; his surprise, his happiness, his curiosity... everything in him could never be faked. The heart beats to him very strong of being able to know the intimacy of his son and of being part, finally of it. When the three of them move away from Junior's room to eat something, James stops Cristiano. Cristiano frowns gently, but James slides his hand over and over his arm.

He has wanted to do this since he saw Junior out of that school.

"Cristiano, I was thinking..." he begins, looking for some reaction.

Ronaldo looks at him with more curiosity, so James shakes his head.

"Would it bother you if I sent the picture that we took in the hostel to my family? I mean, my mom, my sister, my stepfather and Daniela. My mom has asked every day for Junior. She still doesn't know anything, I just told her that I had found my son"

Cristiano remains silent and James is afraid he said something bad. Doubtfully he could be sure that he was not rushing with that request, but he wanted to let his family know how his life was now complete. James also wanted to remove that weight from his mother's shoulders and fulfill the promise he made when he left Colombia.

James felt that, in some way, he owed that gesture to all of them and wanted so much, also, to make Junior part of his family. James wished that his mother, stepfather, sister and Daniela could be able to imagine Junior as one of the Rodriguez, when they saw him on television or internet.

James desperately needed it.

"Would that make you happy?" Cristiano asks and James nods firmly and quickly.

"You don't know how much"

"Then do it" Cristiano smiles softly. "Send them the picture, make them know Junior"

"Thanks," James answers, his lips tight. "Thank you, thank you, thank you".

Cristiano observes him in silence.

"Thanks for all this, Cris" James mutters honestly, as he leans to show Cristiano his heart. "I love you".

I love you too, Cristiano responds but without making a sound, licking his lips when James moves away from his mouth.

James doesn't waste time. With trembling fingers, he takes out his cell phone and attaches the most beautiful selfie in the world in a message for his mother, his sister, his stepfather and for Daniela. This must be, without a doubt, one of the most important steps of his life and he is aware of it. But he's so happy and feels so full at last that he cannot help it.

Next to the image, James writes with emotion: "My son, my son's father and me. If I die now, I would die happy." He doesn't think about it for a moment and sends it.

The first answer comes just a couple of seconds later, but James does not dare to look, because Cristiano's arms around his waist are all he needs to pay attention to now and the beating of his heart, right in his ear, is the only noise that makes his skin shudder in the sweetest way. When he told Cristiano that he loved him, he really meant it.

-

Junior is hanging around in the living room and they can both hear him so they feel free to chat for a moment alone. Cristiano adores the daily life that they are forming together step by step, but he has been away from James so long that he cannot help wanting to have him close to him without any barrier. Junior isn't a wall between them, but the bond that unites them eternally. However, Cristiano feels that he needs this solitude, that he and James deserve to be like this, lying down looking each other in the eye and saying with them everything they never dared to say before.

"I told my mom and my siblings" he decides to confess, touching with his fingertips the soft skin of James' freckled cheeks.

"What did they tell you?" James answers quietly.

Cristiano shrugs and wrinkles his mouth, but remains stoic, stroking his face.

"They weren't too enthusiastic about it"

James remains silent. Cristiano, on the other hand, chooses to lift his chin with his fingers, so that they continue to see each other's eyes. He loves the feeling of knowing what James feels, just by looking at him.

"That doesn't mean I regret this," Cristiano says. "Every minute that passes convinces me more that it's the best decision I have ever made"

James smiles and Cristiano lets out a tiny laugh.

"Did I tell you how much I like your smile?"

"Is there anything from me that you don't like?" James responds with a feigned arrogance that makes Cristiano laugh even more.

"It seems that I like everything... your face, your accent, your body"

"Did you ever forget me, Cristiano?" James asks suddenly, blinking many times. "During all these years, did you ever stop thinking about me?"

Cristiano keeps his lips sealed, inhaling James' scent deeply. His question makes his soul hurt and he wants nothing more than to hug him and never let him go again.

"How could I? Junior always reminded me of you"

"But," James insists, and Cristiano curves his head. "Did you want to see me again? Did you want this to work? Did you want me to be your omega?"

Cristiano leaves a kiss on his forehead and savors James' scent. It tastes like a ripe fruit, like a peach about to explode and Cristiano wants to devour it whole, he wants to make him finally his in the way he should have been six years ago.

"I always wanted it. I want you to be the only one by my side forever. I want you to be the only one who carries my children"

James surrounds his torso and hides in his chest and Cristiano feels himself dying with his innocent purr, which he can feel right over his heart. He just wants things to finally follow the correct course, which should never have been diverted and when his mouth, slow and anxious, looks for the path that leads to the neck of James, he feels burn whole. James' body calls him insistently and Cristiano wants to succumb to all that love. James gives his permission and Cristiano knows it, by the way he exposes his neck for him to bite at last.

There is nothing that he needs and wants more in this life.

"Dad!"

Junior's cry awakens them both from their intimate reverie. They move away, half ashamed of their instincts. Cristiano sees James stand up while arranging his clothes and he can look the curve of his waist and his milky skin. James smells incredible. However, a new call from Junior ends up erasing his thoughts. James laughs, as if sensing his despair. He offers his hand quizzically and helps him get up and go to the living room.

"What's wrong, Cris?" Asks James and Cristiano reaches to hear different voices from the television and then cannot help frowning.

Junior is standing in front, not moving.

"Why did you turn on the TV? I told you that you couldn't" says Cristiano. Junior finally turns around and looks at him and James with his big eyes wide open and sad and Cristiano's stomach churns.

"The people on TV say that you bought me, Dad. Why do they say that?"

Cristiano's heart beats very hard and his eyes burn because of the tears that he holds fast. Junior demands an explanation without rudeness or hatred, just with an overwhelming confusion and Cristiano doesn't know what to answer or what explanation to give and James' hand, which sneaks in between his and gives him a warm squeeze, fails to calm his head or his guilt and he feels an idiot for believing that the day when Junior learned the ugly part of the truth would never come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Georgina was the one who let all the media know about Cris' visit to James. She is spiteful and heartbroken and the TV shows her as the victim and at the same time people has finally realized why Cristiano is so in love with James.
> 
> James finally sent a picture of Junior to his family! Cristiano can't deny anything to him and he just want to make him his truly omega. 
> 
> Junior discovered the bad part of the truth, but will James and Cristiano be sincere with him?
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and visits!!
> 
> BTW GUYS: just asking, are there some dybaldo shippers there? (Cristiano x Dybala) Would you be interested in reading an omegaverse of these two? I'm just imagining a plot and I'd love to know what you think!


	20. The plan

"Dad, what do they mean by that? Did you buy me? Like we bought the dogs?"

James closes his eyes for a few seconds, then opens them with too much parsimony and he feels helpless because he cannot say anything. He's not even able to see Junior in the face and answer a question that isn't for him. At his side, Cristiano is very stiff, with his eyes fixed on his son's face, but James can sense his nervousness, his anxiety and his pain. Throughout his life being away from Junior, James avoided thinking about how he'd one day reveal the truth; his feelings and doubts began to appear when he saw him that day after school. James doesn't know if Cristiano ever really thought about it, or if he has a premeditated answer.

His half-glassy eyes make James believe that it was never like that. That Cristiano is only as perplexed and hurt as he is. And knowing that hurts lots.

"I gave you an order and you didn't obey me, Cristiano." Ronaldo's voice sounds acidic and James watches him cautiously.

"But why do TV people say that? I don't get it!" Junior is raising his own voice more and more. The noise from the television makes an uncomfortable sound and James can hear over the words of women and men on the television show; He can hear his name and the name of Junior and Cristiano and how all the rumors that ran for so long were true.

Without thinking too much, James takes the remote control and turns off the TV, but that doesn't make Junior leave his tantrum or his sad face and James sighs deeply. He has fear. This could become the moment where everything he got and loved simply disappears and gives way to his only life, the real one.

He can't answer. He can't even open his mouth. The only thing James does is looking with regret at Junior's questioning and his frown. He wouldn't be able to imagine the look in his eyes if he ever realized that everything the people on TV say is true. How could James see him again? How could he hug him and promise him love? How would Cristiano also justify six years of sincere affection? How could Junior believe both of them again if they were able to cross paths with him when he was barely a newborn?

"Cris, I don't want to talk about that, it's okay?" Cristiano murmurs, however, he has lost his authoritative voice. He seems an alpha tired and resigned and James fears what that might mean.

"I do" Junior doesn't give up, not for a second. "I do want to talk. What does it mean, dad? Why are they saying that?"

Cristiano remains in a dense silence.

"Pa, what do they mean?" Junior looks for him and James feels no strength in his body. "Pa, please"

His face and his sadness James can perceive them whole. His soul hurts and he says, finally, that everything he denied for years has reappeared to steal his hopes. The past is too painful and cruel. All the actions he did without taking into account his conscience have come to stand in his happy world. Maybe it really was true and James had only tried to deny it for too long and now this error simply couldn't be sustained anymore.

Taking Junior away from him, giving him to his father and grandmother in exchange for money makes him a person completely unworthy of his love. How could he have accepted to live this utopia next to Cristiano knowing that at some point everything would be broken completely? Junior's look stirs his heart, makes his eyes burn and his forehead heat up. Junior pleads with his bulging lips and with his little dark hair scrambled over his little head. James wants to hug him until his look of sadness turns into one of love; He wants to protect him from the crudest reality.

James doesn't know if that's what Cristiano wants too, but he could never give his alpha a taste against what his baby needs. James is not thinking much when he squats in front of Junior and takes his little hands in his own. Junior watches him deeply with his big brown eyes. James kisses his hands again and again and returns his gaze. He wants to whisper that he would never lie to him, but that he wouldn't allow him to suffer in any way.

The return to Spain has been to achieve redemption and to love the son he let escape from his arms years ago. James is no longer able to back down. He cannot let go of everything he has achieved by the crudeness of the actions of which he will regret his entire life. And if the lie is the only possible way to keep Junior's love, James is willing to sin again.

"Cris, you know it's been a lot hard for the three of us to be together, right?"

Junior nods furiously and James can feel Cristiano's eyes burning his own face.

"There are always so much people around us" James looks at him sweetly. "You must have lived it much more than me, next to your dad. Everyone wants to know what things you two do or who you are with"

"They're always taking pictures, even when we're on vacation," Junior replies, brusquely removing a couple of tears that slide down his cheeks.

"And that bothered you, Junior?"

The child quickly assent again.

"Sorry for not being there before to protect you" whispers James with an overwhelming sincerity. "Forgive me, for real. But now I'm here, with you, with your dad and I'm going to protect you from all the bad things that people do to you or tell you"

"James..." Cristiano tries to say suddenly, but James doesn't stop his speech. He tightens Junior's hands tighter and never takes his eyes off him.

"Our meeting is very difficult to understand for everyone else. They say things that aren't true, just because they seek to get something to talk about. They spent so much time trying to find out who your mother was, that now that they have the truth right in front of them, they can't stand that our truth, son, is the purest and the most innocent in the world"

James' heart beats very hard and his lips burn with all the words that escape from his mouth. He knows that Junior cannot read the lie in disguise between each of his sentences and that means that the blindfold in his eyes is never going to fall.

James believes that this is a thousand times better than hurting his heart with the reality of all the insensitive actions he and Cristiano committed.

"So it's a lie? Dad never bought me?"

Junior is crying and James can hear, near him, that Cristiano does it too.

"Of course he never did something like that! Do you really believe, darling, that your dad would be able to do something like that?"

"No"

"Exactly. He would never do that" James lies.

"And you never accepted money in exchange for me? That's what they said on TV"

"Of course not! I love you, Junior. I would never do something that could hurt you"

Junior starts to cry hard, tangling his arms quickly around James' neck and wetting his shirt of slobber and snot. James contains it with a lot of patience; it lulls him in his body and fills his wet face with short kisses. Junior mutters a lot of words that die on his neck and that doesn't seem to make sense due to the strength of his crying. Everything has a bleak aura. James is able to feel the hand of Cristiano, big and soft, on his head and he is sincere when he gives him a very delicate caress. James cannot see him, but he is sure that Cristiano continues to shed tears and that makes everything hurt. There is no other way out, he thinks with closed eyes. There was no other way out.

"They are lying, Cris. They always lie"

There's no answer from Junior's lips or from Cristiano's mouth, but James isn't expecting that. Instead, he allows Junior to mourn his grief in his chest while he caress with trembling fingers, the stiff hand of Cristiano on his shoulder.

-

Georgina has read the message on her Instagram again and again. She has ignored each of the calls that continue to ring her cell phone and has avoided answering the rest of the messages from journalists and curious fans. The words written there make her heart beat hard and the doubts begin to take hold of her very quickly.

She doesn't mett in person the alpha that has made her doubt again how finished her relationship with Cristiano was. Even when the message had reached her, Georgina had not been able to stop frowning. It had taken her some time to finally decide to give him her private number. The words of Arturo Vidal were visible directly there on the screen: _I have a plan. It'll benefit both of us_.

Arturo Vidal wasn't exactly unknown to her actually, she knew the things that everyone knew about him. That he was a talented football player, that he played in Germany, that he had several scandals, but, above all, Georgina had religiously followed the news that linked this alpha with James Rodriguez. According to the TV shows, Arturo and James had known each other in adolescence and had been friends. For many years they hadn't seen, but Arturo had traveled to Spain recently for no apparent reason.

For all the world of TV, Arturo had come to Spain to see James Rodriguez again and the reality of the break up of him and his wife only made the rumors even more vivid. Georgina knew that Arturo couldn't refer to anything other than the rising relationship of Cristiano Ronaldo and James and curiosity filled her completely as much as resentment and the desire that Cristiano return to her side.

Arturo hadn't said anything else and Georgina hadn't dared yet to send him a new message or call him. She needed to think about it. Whatever Arthur wanted to propose to her was probably not in favor of the relationship that James and Cristiano had formed so earnestly. Arturo had appeared like a vulture looking for a reunion with James and Georgina could read his intentions. The rumor that linked James in an affair with Arturo was latent in Spain and circulated with speed over the Internet, but Georgina didn't understand how Cristiano had let that pass so lightly.

Cristiano was a careful alpha. He always wanted his partners to be out of the scandals and that, in no way, the rumors of infidelity would come close to them. But everything was so different with James and that made Georgina feel sick. Cristiano had changed to be with James and Georgina understood the reasons, but that didn't mean ahe shared them at all.

The sound of her phone woke her from her thoughts. It wasn't a call, but a new message from the number she had saved with the name: AV. The audio didn't last too long: just 30 seconds. In the solitude of her room, Georgina sighed deeply. Pressing the screen, very gently, Arturo's voice sounded very strong.

Georgina's air was cut off.

_> > Hi, Georgina, how are you? You and I don't know each other in person, but I know that you have seen me on TV in the same way that I have seen you. I'm aware that you were Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend until very recently and I think you've heard the rumors that link me to James Rodríguez. I have information that might interest you. I'm sure I can help you to recover Cristiano, if you want to help me to get James back, what do you say?_

Arturo's voice disappeared in one go, but Georgina felt that the walls had absorbed it probably to remind her forever of those words and that offer.

Georgina felt her chest burn. If she said yes, she knew that the possibilities were divided and that the fact that Cristiano returned to her would probably not be so easy. Cristiano could be so in love with James that, within his sentimental alienation, he could decide not to believe anything that she and Arturo told him.

Then she would feel as humiliated and disappointed as when Cristiano declared in front of everyone that James was his omega.

But the chance even if it was minuscule to return to normal calls Georgina too forcefully.

Her lips tremble slightly when she decides to record that audio. Her voice sounds husky with the short phrase she sends to Arturo: _let's get together to talk, I'll send you the address of a place._

Arturo sees the message immediately.

-

Cristiano can hear Junior's breathing, soft and slow. From his position, he is able to admire his son's wild hair on the pillow and his arms around James' torso. When he looks to the front, all he finds are James' eyes, which are made clearer by the dim light that emerges from the lamp on the bedside table.

After the lie that James had told Junior, they haven't talked much. The two of them seemed too concerned to make Junior feel loved and cared and to keep him away from the rumors of TV. There hadn't been a real time to chat and clarify things. Cristiano had mixed feelings. His desire to thank James for soothing Junior's questions, for containing him and for loving him, intersects and brutally collides with anger and fear. As much as he wanted to make Junior happy, he also wanted the lies to not be part of the lives of the three of them anymore.

James doesn't move a bit, but simply holds his gaze with soft blinks that Cristiano values. He looks like a painting there, with his pretty features and his boyish face and wide lips. Cristiano can read his eyes and his sincerity overwhelms him. In between the whole scenario that James created for Junior, he still looks so real. Without any notable fear, however, with all the security of the world. His long fingers, which run smoothly through Junior's strands, give Cristiano a poignant breeze. Cristiano feels that by closing his eyes, he can believe that this will last forever. 

And that this lie is the end of all lies.

"I know what you're thinking" Suddenly James breaks the silence, but Cristiano doesn't dare to answer the conversation. He only dedicates himself to observe him steadily and to admire, with sweetness and nostalgia, the tender way in which James holds Junior against his chest.

"You do?" He can say later. James smiles lightly and nods. They speak in a very quiet and husky voice.

"Yeah. What happened there was the right. We did the right thing"

James seems so confident and Cristiano simply can't understand how he is capable of that.

"Do you really believe it? Was this really the best, James?"

The only thing that illuminates the room is the light of the lamp on the table and the space that appears between the half-closed curtains. Through the windows, it goes through a tiny halo that only makes James' eyes look brighter and deeper and Cristiano feels that it stirs his heart.

"I promised myself to protect Junior at any cost and I'll keep it. We did what we had to do, Cristiano " James sentenced. "We did what good parents would do"

Cristiano doesn't know whether to be sure or not and the contradiction is painful and exhausting and he has to remain silent, weighing in his head the words of the omega lying next to him. Everything seems so unreal. Could they both be able to sustain the lie forever? Could they be able to protect Junior forever?

"I'd like you to promise me that everything will be fine from now on" in the end Cristiano decides to say, feeling his heart heavy in the whisper of those words. James' smile, perfect and sweet, is all he needs now.

"Everything will be fine, I promise. We will be happy, the three of us. We deserve it"

Junior breathes deeply and Cristiano cannot help but leave a kiss in his hair. Gently and silently, he sucks all his scent of baby and James and himself and with his eyes closed he wants to believe James' words in a religious way. Actually, there is nothing more to believe now. Everything he truly has and everything he wants to have is there, in that bed by his side. Junior and James are the question and the conclusion. It is with them that Cristiano feels complete.

His head moves up and down, nodding hurry and with more security until James' lips surprise him again.

"I love you, Cristiano" James says with wide eyes and without blinking. His whole face reflects the pure frankness and Cristiano feels that everything that both lived, dreamed and suffered was worth in the most innocent and correct way.

He really doesn't need anything else. James gives off love in spurts, James loves him in the sweetest way possible and knowing that allows Cristiano to believe that everyone, at least for tonight, is not bigger than them 3 and that room.

That thought brings him infinite peace and happiness.

"I love you too".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drama can't stop!!!
> 
> Soo guys, James decided to lie to Junior. He hopes that Junior will actually never learn the ugly part of the truth because he can't tolerate to make his child suffer again in such a cruel way.
> 
> Georgina and Arturo have a plan to separate James and Cris, will it work?
> 
> Cristiano doesn't feel good with the idea of lying to his son just because he doesn't know if this lie can last forever. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and visits!!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this is an experiment. It is not my intention that someone feels insulted by this (since they are real people and all that). I just wanted to imagine how it would be if James were the other dad of Cris Junior and i thought that omegaverse was the easiest way to make that. If you truly like this people I'll gladly continue it!


End file.
